Foreign agencies to help search abducted U.N official

ISLAMABAD, Feb. 15 -- Foreign agencies have come to the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta to search an American national of the U.N. refugee agency, who was kidnapped on Feb. 2, the provincial chief executive said Sunday.

"I have information that they (foreign agencies) have come here and staying in a local hotel," Balochistan Chief Minister Nawab Muhammad Aslam Raisani told reporters.

"I do not know whom they have met and what they are doing," Raisani said. "Balochistan government is making all-out efforts for safe recovery of John Solecki and he will soon be recovered."

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon rang up Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari Saturday and called for efforts to recover Solecki. The U.N. has also sought direct access to the captors, according to local press reports.

John Solecki, head of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, was kidnapped when he was heading to his office.

His driver was shot dead by the gunmen when they intercepted his vehicle and opened fire.

A new organization Baloch Liberation United Front has claimed responsible for the kidnapping. A video showing Solecki was released by the group Friday with a list of their demands and threat to kill him if the demands were not met in 72 hours.

Solecki, blind-folded in the mobile phone video, urged the United Nations to do something for his release as he is not feeling well and is sick.

Solecki's captors also sent a list of three demands for his release. The demands include release of 141 Baloch women in 72 hours, recovery of 6,000 missing Baloch nationals and solution to the Balochistan problems under the Geneva Convention.

A purported spokesman for the group Shahid Baloch made similar demands a day after Solecki was kidnapped.

Pakistan's advisor on interior Rehman Malik Saturday described the demands as unrealistic, saying that the government did not hold any women.