Gunmen who kidnapped two Swiss tourists in a volatile southwestern
Pakistani province have taken them to a neighboring tribal area that
was once a Taliban stronghold, a senior government official said Sunday.
The
Swiss tourists, a man and a woman who were traveling through
Baluchistan by car, were kidnapped by gunmen Friday as they dined at a
hotel in Lorali city.
Officials in the neighboring South
Waziristan tribal area have been asked to keep an eye out for
"suspicious elements," said Baluchistan's home secretary, Zafarullah
Baloch. Tribesmen in both areas have also been asked for help, he said.
The
five gunmen were speaking Pashtu and drove off with the pair in a green
car across the Zhob area of Baluchistan and eventually into South
Waziristan, said Baloch.
South Waziristan served as the main
sanctuary for the Pakistani Taliban before the military launched an
offensive in 2009. But many militants still populate the area.
The
kidnapping is the first such incident involving Swiss citizens in
Pakistan, and authorities in Switzerland have set up a task force
combining police and intelligence services to work on the case, the
Swiss Foreign Ministry has said. The pair's identity was not disclosed.
Baluchistan,
which borders Iran and Afghanistan, is a particularly dangerous region
in Pakistan. It is the scene of a low-level separatist insurgency, and
criminal gangs involved in the kidnapping for ransom trade are common.
The
Swiss were driving from Punjab province, and when they reached Lorali,
about 90 miles (150 kilometers) north of Quetta, the capital of the
province, they were given a police escort, local Pakistan officials
have said. However, once they reached its outskirts, beyond the area
under police jurisdiction, they were left without security guides.
Most
kidnapping victims in the country are Pakistani, but foreign aid
workers, diplomats and other foreigners have also been targeted. AP
