Pakistan: Militants take 16 workers hostage
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Thursday, January 9, 2025
Islamabad (UrduPoint News/ Pakistan Point News - DW Urdu - 09 January 2025) Militants have abducted 16 workers working on a mining project in northwestern Pakistan by attacking a vehicle. According to reports, the workers were working on a mining project of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission.
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A local police officer Muhammad Ijaz told the Associated Press that the militants also set fire to the vehicle carrying the workers on a road in Lakki Marwat district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, bordering Afghanistan.
According to the police officer, the attack took place when the workers were on their way from Lakki Marwat to a nearby mining project.
He did not give further details.
Other security officials said the mining project where the men worked was affiliated with the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, but the kidnapped workers were not its employees.
The Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission was not immediately available for comment, according to the AP.
Hours after the incident, the militants sent a video to journalists showing some of the kidnapped workers. One of them can be seen in the video urging authorities to accept demands for the release of the kidnappers, but it is not clear what those demands are.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the kidnapping, but the Pakistani Taliban are suspected of carrying out the abduction, which has stepped up attacks on security forces and civilians in recent months.
The attack came a day after dozens of armed Baloch separatists seized a government office in a remote district of southwestern Pakistan, looted a bank and partially torched a police station, police said on Thursday.
The outlawed Baloch Liberation Army claimed responsibility for the attack in Khuzdar, Balochistan, on Wednesday.
Analysts say separatists in Balochistan are posing a major threat to national security, like the Pakistani Taliban. In recent months, militant attacks have increased in Balochistan and the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The Pakistani Taliban are allies of the Afghan Taliban. The Pakistani Taliban have also been emboldened since the Taliban returned to power in neighboring Afghanistan in 2021.
Leaders and fighters of the Taliban are said to be hiding in Afghanistan.
Balochistan, rich in oil and minerals, is Pakistan’s largest but least populous province. It is home to the country's ethnic Baloch minority, who say they face discrimination and exploitation from the central government.
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