Pakistan hunts French tourist's kidnappers
Pakistani police hunted Sunday for a French tourist kidnapped in the country's restive southwest, but an officer said they still did not know who was behind the abduction.
Gunmen on Saturday snatched the 41-year-old man from a group of French nationals who were travelling in Baluchistan province -- on the border with both Afghanistan and Iran.
He was kidnapped in an area where ethnic Baluch separatist groups and Islamist fighters linked to al-Qaeda and the Taliban are known to operate, around 80 kilometres (50 miles) from the Afghan frontier.
"We have sent different teams to locate the kidnappers and recover the French tourist," local police officer Meerullah, who goes by one name, told AFP from the town of Dal Bandin, near the site of the abduction.
"We don't know who the kidnappers are, what their motive is. We have not yet received any demand. We have really no idea about the kidnappers."
Meerullah said that police, the paramilitary Frontier Corps and an anti-terrorism unit had all been deployed to look for the Frenchman.
"We are quite hopeful the abductors will be traced and the hostage will be released," he added.
Six kidnappers armed with Kalashnikovs stopped the two French men, two women and two children travelling by car near the town of Landi, police said Saturday.
Police said the other French man was not targeted because he was handicapped and that the children were aged two and five years old.
Meerullah said the group were heading for Iran. They were in an area which foreign embassies say is not safe for travel.
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