Baluch group says holds American hostage in Pakistan

[Coventina]

Source: Reuters

QUETTA, Pakistan, Feb 7 (Reuters) - An unknown separatist group claimed responsibility on Saturday for abducting an American working for the U.N. refugee agency in southwest Pakistan, a local news agency reported.

John Solecki, head of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office in the southwestern city of Quetta was snatched on Feb. 2, after gunmen ambushed his car and shot dead his driver.

A spokesman for a group called Baluchistan Liberation United Front told the Online news agency they had kidnapped the man to make the United Nations pay attention to the "plight" of the Baluchi people.

"We have three demands, and if our demands are not met, then John Solecki will lose his life," a spokesman, identifying himself as Shahak Baluch, told the agency.


Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/asiaCrisis/idUSISL398876

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Their demands are outlined in the article but boil down to the release of prisoners, information on missing persons, and Baluch independence.

[HereSince1628]

1. The phrase was, come to us with an open hand, not a clenched fist

Why do I get the feeling there is a Predator pilot out in California doing simulations of flights over Baluchistan?

[balantz]

2. "...it is a launching pad for U.S. military operations against Islamic terrorism."

Pakistan: The Resurgence of Baluch Nationalism
Frederic Grare
Carnegie Endowment

Carnegie Paper No. 65, January 2006

http://www.carnegieendowment.org/publications/index.cfm?fa=view&id=17865&prog=zg

A new conflict is emerging in Baluchistan, a vast yet sparsely populated Pakistani province, straddling three countries: Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan. This instability has potential implications for the United States, as it is a launching pad for U.S. military operations against Islamic terrorism.

In a new Carnegie Paper, Pakistan: The Resurgence of Baluch Nationalism, Visiting Scholar Frédéric Grare provides insight to the numerous factors that have led to the complex struggle between the Pakistani government and the Baluch population’s fight for independence. Were Baluchistan to become independent, Pakistan would lose a major part of its natural resources and Baluchistan would become a new zone of instability in the region.

- snip -