French tourist snatched in Balochistan

By: Bari Baloch

QUETTA - Gunmen abducted a French tourist on Saturday, snatching him from a group of compatriots, who included women and children, in Chagai district of Balochistan near Pakistan-Iran border, official sources said.
Six French tourists, including two men, two women and two children who were travelling to Iran via Taftan border by two vehicles, were stopped by six kidnappers armed with Kalashnikovs at Landi area some 30km away from Dalbandin town, sources said.
“Kidnappers held tourists hostage for some time and later took one of them gunpoint in a vehicle towards an unknown location,” official sources told The Nation.
Sources said that tourists had left Quetta at morning and were heading towards Iran.
The abducted tourist was identified as Anthio, 41. So far, no one has taken responsibility for the abduction.
It may be mentioned here that an American UN official John Solecki had been abducted by a shadowy Baloch resistance organisation on February 2 and released him after keeping him in captivity for two months.
AFP/Reuters add: The 41-year-old man was kidnapped in an area where ethnic Baloch groups and fighters linked to Al-Qaeda and the Taliban are known to operate, around 80km from the border with Afghanistan.
His abduction comes seven weeks after an American UN official was released following a two-month hostage ordeal that was claimed by a shadowy Baloch group trying to extract concessions from the central government.
The tourists had left Quetta and were heading for Iran, said Karar Shah, a police officer from Dalbandin, where the tourists alerted the Pakistani authorities to the abduction.
“The incident happened near Landi and the French told us six men armed with Kalashnikovs stopped them and then one of them was taken away at gunpoint in a vehicle,” Shah told AFP.

The Nation:May 24, 2009