A US citizen has been kidnapped in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore. Reuters reports:
The man, who the U.S. embassy declined to identify, works for the consulting firm J.E. Austin Associates Inc., and was working on a development project in the country’s lawless tribal areas, where Pakistani troops have been battling Islamist insurgents for years.
A U.S. embassy spokesman said they were trying to confirm the reports.
“Some six to eight people broke into his house at around 3:30 a.m., when security guards on duty were making preparation for fasting,” police official Tajamal Hussain told Reuters, referring to the Ramadan fast observed by Muslims.
“Two of the assailants came from the front gate while about six others used the backdoor. They tortured the guards and then took the American with them.”
A security official familiar with the incident said the gunmen forced the man’s driver to knock on his bedroom door. When the man opened it, they took him.
No group has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping at this time, but given the nature and the target of this kidnapping, he is likely to end up in the hands of terrorist groups, if he wasn’t kidnapped by a terrorist group directly. South Waziristan Taliban leader Waliur Rehman Mehsud is currently holding two Swiss citizens, who were originally kidanapped in Baluchistan province, and said he would release the Swiss couple if the US freed Aafia Siddiqui, who is better known as “Lady al Qaeda.”
