Saturday, April 4, 2009

The Baloch Liberation United Front (BLUF) Release American Hostage John Soleck

Excellent news (the release of Soleck)
Update on - Video: BLUF Threaten to Murder American John Solecki in Hostage Video

Apparently the NYT's felt a separate article wasn't important enough so they included it in a article about a very disturbing, security wise, suicide bomb attack in Islamabad:
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A suicide bomber blew himself up in an upper-class neighborhood of the capital on Saturday night, killing at least eight paramilitary security officers posted at a camp set up on a main road for the protection of the area’s foreign diplomats and well-to-do residents.

Also on Saturday, an American worker for the United Nations kidnapped near the Afghan border more than two months ago was freed, according to Jennifer Pagonis, a United Nations official. Ms. Pagonis said that the worker, John Solecki, had been released south of Quetta.

Mr. Solecki was seized Feb. 2 by gunmen who killed his driver in the southwestern city of Quetta in Baluchistan. A suspected separatist group, the previously unknown Baluchistan Liberation United Front, claimed responsibility and threatened to kill Mr. Solecki if the government did not release more than 1,000 imprisoned members of Baluchistan separatist groups.

A intelligence official in Quetta said no prisoners were released to free Mr. Solecki.


[...]The suicide attack occurred at 8 p.m., when many families were gathering for dinner in nearby houses, and after senior police officials had been warning for more than a week that suicide bombers had entered the city.

Pakistani officials were especially unnerved because the attack appeared to have been slightly more involved than other recent suicide missions here that were thought to have been carried out by lone bombers, according to an official with the Interior Ministry who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The attack on Saturday appeared to include at least two people, one of them a gunman who the official said fired shots after the bombing.
Crossposted at Jawa Report

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