WORLD BRIEFING / PAKISTAN
Kidnappers threatened to kill an American employee of the United Nations within 72 hours and issued a grainy video of the blindfolded captive saying he was “sick and in trouble.”
A letter accompanying the video delivered to a Pakistani news agency said the hostage, John Solecki, would be killed unless authorities released 141 women it said were being held in Pakistan.
Solecki heads the U.N. refugee agency in the city of Quetta.
The kidnappers have identified themselves as the Baluchistan Liberation United Front, suggesting a link with separatists who have waged a long insurgency against Pakistan’s government.
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