Kidnapped American U.N. official freed in Pakistan
(Adds comment, detail, background)
By Gul Yousafzai
QUETTA, Pakistan, April 4 (Reuters) - An American U.N. refugee official kidnapped in Pakistan in February has been released, police and the United Nations said on Saturday.
John Solecki, 49, head of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office in Baluchistan province, was kidnapped in the provincial capital, Quetta, on Feb. 2 when gunmen ambushed his car and shot dead his driver.
"We have found him and he's being taken to Quetta," senior police official Asif Nawez Warriach said. "He's safe and sound."
A U.N. spokeswoman confirmed Solecki had been freed.
A previously unknown militant group, the Baluchistan Liberation United Front (BLUF), said it had kidnapped Solecki and had demanded the release of prisoners it said were being held by the government.
A man claiming to speak for the group telephoned a Pakistani news agency earlier on Saturday to say Solecki was being released on humanitarian grounds.
Separatist militants have for decades fought a low-intensity insurgency in Baluchistan for control of the province's gas and other resources.
The United Nations said on Tuesday it had no information about Solecki for two weeks and it believed he could be "gravely ill".
The BLUF had demanded the release of more than 1,000 prisoners it said were being held by the government.
It had also demanded resolution of the issue of Baluch independence under the Geneva Convention. (Writing by Robert Birsel; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
By Gul Yousafzai
QUETTA, Pakistan, April 4 (Reuters) - An American U.N. refugee official kidnapped in Pakistan in February has been released, police and the United Nations said on Saturday.
John Solecki, 49, head of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office in Baluchistan province, was kidnapped in the provincial capital, Quetta, on Feb. 2 when gunmen ambushed his car and shot dead his driver.
"We have found him and he's being taken to Quetta," senior police official Asif Nawez Warriach said. "He's safe and sound."
A U.N. spokeswoman confirmed Solecki had been freed.
A previously unknown militant group, the Baluchistan Liberation United Front (BLUF), said it had kidnapped Solecki and had demanded the release of prisoners it said were being held by the government.
A man claiming to speak for the group telephoned a Pakistani news agency earlier on Saturday to say Solecki was being released on humanitarian grounds.
Separatist militants have for decades fought a low-intensity insurgency in Baluchistan for control of the province's gas and other resources.
The United Nations said on Tuesday it had no information about Solecki for two weeks and it believed he could be "gravely ill".
The BLUF had demanded the release of more than 1,000 prisoners it said were being held by the government.
It had also demanded resolution of the issue of Baluch independence under the Geneva Convention. (Writing by Robert Birsel; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
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