Raiders abduct an American in Pakistan
Gunmen took Warren Weinstein at his home in Lahore in a rare kidnapping of a foreigner.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Gunmen kidnapped an American from his house Saturday in the eastern city of Lahore, Pakistan, carrying out an attack that underscores the risk that U.S. citizens and other foreigners face in a country that has been grappling with Islamic extremists for years.
A U.S. Embassy spokesman identified the man as Warren Weinstein, but would not give any further details about his background or the abduction. The name matches the LinkedIn profile of the Pakistan country director for J.E. Austin Associates, a consultant for development projects in Pakistan and other countries. According to its website, the firm often works with the U.S. Agency for International Development, the U.S. government's primary international aid organization.
Police in Lahore said six gunmen approached Weinstein's house in Model Town, an upscale neighborhood, early in the morning. Three went to the main gate and offered Weinstein's guards Sehri, a meal eaten before the day's fasting period starts during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, said a police official, speaking on condition of anonymity. The other gunmen entered Weinstein's house from a back entrance, the police official said.
The four security guards on duty at the house have been detained for questioning. The police official said Weinstein may have been working on a development project in Pakistan's volatile tribal areas along the Afghan border, and was scheduled to leave for the United States on Monday. No one has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping.
According to the LinkedIn profile, Weinstein has been based in Lahore for seven years. The company's website lists him as an expert in international development for 25 years and proficient in six languages. His areas of expertise include governance, microfinance, small- and medium-sized business development, and institutional development. Calls to J.E. Austin's headquarters in Arlington, Va., went unanswered.
Kidnappings in Pakistan are common, though most of the victims are Pakistani citizens. The abduction of foreigners from their homes is rare. Criminal gangs frequently carry out kidnappings, as do the Pakistani Taliban and other Islamic militant groups, which use the ransom money to fund their activities.
The Pakistani Taliban has said it is holding captive a Swiss couple abducted July 1 while traveling through the province of Balochistan. Taliban leaders have said they would release the couple if the United States frees Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani convicted of trying to kill FBI agents and U.S. Army officers in Afghanistan in 2008. She was sentenced to 86 years in prison.
American citizens are considered to be especially at risk in Pakistan, an intensely anti-American country where Islamic extremists carry out suicide bomb attacks and other acts of terror against the Pakistani government and its security forces because of their alliance with Washington.