QUETTA/ISLAMABAD: Gunmen kidnapped a top American UN official and killed his driver in Pakistan yesterday, in the most high-profile recent Western abduction in a country struggling to contain extremist violence.
John Solecki, head of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) in the southwestern city of Quetta, was snatched at gunpoint while traveling to work in the capital of Balochistan province, which borders Afghanistan and Iran.
Gunmen ambushed Solecki’s vehicle, which was marked with United Nations insignia, and opened fire, wounding the driver who later died of his injuries, UN officials and police said. “He is an American national and his name is John Solecki. He is head of the sub-office of UNHCR-Quetta,” local police official Khalid Masood told reporters.
“They opened fire. His driver was wounded and died on the way to hospital. The gunmen took him (Solecki) away,” he said. A white jeep bearing the light blue UNHCR markings hit a brick wall.
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s prime minister promised a quick solution to the brutal insurgency in the country’s former tourist haven in the northwest, even as hundreds of residents fled toward newly opened relief camps.
Carrying the sick and elderly on their backs, residents of the Swat Valley hurried Sunday from fighting that left at least 16 suspected militants, one soldier and 19 civilians dead. Residents say militants now control most of the northwestern valley, despite an army operation that began more than a year ago. At least another 11 bodies had been found in the former tourist resort on Sunday, a police official said.
Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani tried to dispel fears. “As far as Swat, we have the ability and will to bring peace there,” Gilani told reporters. “We are all concerned about the life and property of the people. We are also concerned about those who are migrating.”
Military action is not the only solution, he said — an indication that negotiations may still be an option despite a failed peace deal.
