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U.N. official kidnapped in Balochistan

ISLAMABAD: An American working for the United Nations High Commission for Refugees was kidnapped and his driver killed in the Balochistan provincial capital Quetta on Monday.

Gunmen seized John Solecki, who headed the local office of the UNHCR, when he was on his way to work. They shot at his driver, Syed Hashim, who succumbed to his injury in the hospital.

Mr. Solecki had been working with Afghan refugees in Quetta for two years. Balochistan province shares a border with Afghanistan.

Police said it was unclear who was behind the kidnapping. Balochistan is known to have Taliban safe-havens. A Baloch nationalist insurgency against the Pakistan government is also ongoing.

The police said they had provided Mr. Solecki with security both at his home and his office.

The incident was the first directly targeting a U.N. employee in Pakistan, but not the first American national. A USAID worker was killed in Peshawar in November 2008, and the U.S. Consul-General in Peshawar escaped an attempt on her life earlier.

The U.N. has taken many steps to increase the security of its workers, especially after the Marriott attack in Islamabad in September 2008, when it asked expatriate employees to send their school-going children out of Pakistan.

The Foreign Ministry, which described the incident as “an unfortunate and dastardly terrorist act”, said all attempts were being made for Mr. Solecki’s early and safe recovery.

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