Police Seek Seized American UN Worker in Pakistan

A Pakistani police officer shows to journalists a bullet hole at the UNHCR car, where an American U.N. official was kidnapped, in the main southwest city of Quetta, Pakistan on Monday, Feb. 2, 2009.

(Arshad Butt/AP Photo)

Gunmen seized an American U.N. worker as he rode to work, shooting and killing his driver, U.N. and Pakistani authorities said. His Land Cruiser was found rammed against a wall, punctured by at least one bullet hole.

The United Nations expressed "extreme shock and dismay" at the rare attack Monday in a region that has largely been spared the al-Qaida and Taliban insurgency wracking much of northwestern Pakistan.

The government called the abduction of John Solecki, head of the U.N. refugee office in the southwestern city of Quetta, a "dastardly terrorist act." But police said it was not clear whether Islamist militants, criminals seeking a ransom payment or members of a regional separatist group were responsible.

Quetta is the capital of Baluchistan province, which partly borders Afghanistan. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees has worked for three decades in the region helping hundreds of thousands of Afghans fleeing violence in their homeland.

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Police increased patrols and security checks along roads leading to Afghanistan, some 60 miles (95 kilometers) away, fearing Solecki may be taken there.

Meanwhile in the northwestern part of the nation, at least 35 Islamist militants were killed in an overnight operation in Swat Valley, which has been increasingly overrun with insurgents, Pakistan's military said in a statement Tuesday.

Security forces used helicopter gunships and artillery in the attack, the army said.

Swat was once a popular tourist destination, but about two years ago militants began a violent campaign to enforce Taliban-style Islam there. The state responded with force, but residents say militants increasingly hold sway.

Baluchistan, where Solecki was kidnapped, has largely been spared the al-Qaida and Taliban insurgency in northwestern Pakistan, where several foreigners have been attacked or kidnapped in recent months. In August, Lynne Tracy, the top U.S. diplomat in the northwest, narrowly survived an attack on her vehicle in Peshawar by suspected militants. In November, also in Peshawar, gunmen shot and killed American aid worker Stephen Vance.