Pakistani kidnappers set four-day deadline to kill UN official

Lahore, Mar 2 (ANI): The kidnappers of United Nations' official John Solecki have set a four-day deadline for the Pakistan Government to meet their demands.

The Balochistan Liberation United Front, the group that claimed responsibility for the abduction, have sent a letter to a news agency in Quetta warning that Solecki would be killed if their demands are not met.

"If our demands are not met, then we will kill him, and state agencies will be responsible for it," the group said in the letter.

The group attached a list of 1,109 names of people it said were missing and being held by Pakistani security agencies, and demanded their release.

This is not the first deadline that Solecki's captors have given. The BLUF had earlier demanded UN intervention to secure the release of 141 women it said were held in Pakistani torture cells, provide information about more than 6,000 missing persons, and resolve the issue of Baloch independence under the Geneva Convention.

Balochistan, the largest, but poorest of Pakistan's four provinces, lies on the border with Afghanistan. Separatist militants have fought a low-scale insurgency there for decades.

Solecki, 49, the head of the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in southwestern Balochistan province, was kidnapped from Quetta on February 2. (ANI)