PULI ALAM: Seven Pakistani workers have been kidnapped in an area troubled by the Taliban near the Afghan capital Kabul, police said Thursday.
The Pakistanis – engineers and workers assigned to a hospital construction project in Logar province – were returning to their accommodation after work when they were snatched at gunpoint on Wednesday.
“They were going home from work. Along the road, their minivan was stopped by unknown gunmen, their driver was forced out of the car and all were taken away to an unknown location,” Logar police chief Ghulam Sakhi Roghliwani said.
The abduction comes as Pakistan’s relations with Afghanistan and the United States are at a low after cross-border Nato air strikes killed 24 Pakistani troops on Saturday.
“We’ve launched a search operation. We hope to find them and free them very soon,” said Roghliwani.
There was no claim of responsibility for the abduction but police said the kidnapping might have been carried out by “criminal gangs” seeking a ransom.
The Taliban, leaders of a 10-year insurgency in Afghanistan, were not immediately contactable for comment.
