ICRC Employee Kidnapped In Pakistan

A Pakistani employee of the International Committee of the Red Cross stands next to the vehicle from which British employee Khalil Dale was kidnapped in Quetta.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says one of its workers has been kidnapped in the city of Quetta in southwestern Pakistan.

An ICRC spokeswoman, Sitara Jabeen, declined to disclose the man's name or nationality.

But a senior police official in Quetta, Nazir Ahmed Kurd, speaking near the scene of the kidnapping, said the kidnapped man was British.

"He was entering this lane when he was stopped by around seven or eight men in a [Toyota] Land Cruiser parked here," Kurd said. "The rest of the men stayed inside the vehicle, while one man armed with a pistol stopped his car. Cars normally slow down while taking this turn. So they took the British national, Khalil Dale, out of the car. They took his car keys and they moved toward the airport road."

Quetta police chief Faisal Mehmood said that “so far the car has not been traced.”

Quetta, in Baluchistan Province, is home to Islamist militants as well as separatist insurgents. Both have kidnapped foreigners and locals in the past.

compiled from agency reports