ISLAMABAD: Gunmen yesterday kidnapped a Polish engineer in northern Pakistan and shot dead his two drivers and a security guard during the abduction, police said.
The kidnapping took place near the village of Pind Sultani in Attock district of Punjab province, about 110 kilometers northeast of Islamabad, police said.
“Three Pakistanis — a security guard and two drivers — were shot dead by unknown gunmen as they kidnapped Peter Stanczak, a Polish engineer working with an oil company in the area,” police official Kazim Ali told AFP. The gunmen left the engineer’s company car at the scene, fleeing in their own vehicle, he said, adding that police had cordoned off the area to search for the engineer.
Senior police officers were also meeting with officials from his company Geofizyka Krakow Ltd., about how to rescue him, an officer told AFP.
An AFP reporter later saw company officials and workers attending funeral prayers for the killed drivers and security guard.
“Abduction of foreign multinational company employees in Pakistan is normally carried out by Indian Intelligence agency RAW-sponsored operatives,” said an intelligence officer who did not want to be named, adding this kind of terrorist activity has no links to Al-Qaeda or Taleban. “It’s the work of RAW,” he said.
Nobody claimed responsibility for the attack, but Taleban militants have been responsible for abducting Westerners in the past.
Taleban militants in neighboring North West Frontier Province kidnapped two Chinese telecommunication engineers from the restive Swat Valley in August.
The Chinese, working for Zhongxing Telecommunication Equipment, are still being held by the militants who are demanding the release of their own colleagues from custody in return for their freedom, officials said.
Two Chinese engineers, who were working on a multimillion-dollar hydroelectric dam project, were also kidnapped in late 2004 by militants in the troubled tribal region of South Waziristan.
One of the hostages died in a botched rescue bid in a major embarrassment for Pakistan, which counts China as its closest ally and biggest military supplier.
Pakistan’s military launched a major offensive against militants in August in the Bajaur tribal district bordering Afghanistan. The military says some 1,000 extremists have been killed in the battles.
US and Pakistan officials blame the militants for launching attacks on foreign troops across the border in Afghanistan.
— With input from agencies
