The United Nations is increasingly concerned for the health of an American official from its refugee agency, after the passing this week of a deadline for the Pakistani government to meet the demands of his abductors.
The Baluchistan Liberation United Front, the shadowy group that claims to be holding John Solecki, has made no comment since setting a deadline of Wednesday this week for the government to release hundreds of political prisoners. Solecki, who was snatched at gunpoint nearly eight weeks ago in Quetta, the provincial capital of Baluchistan, works for the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR), serving tens of thousands of Afghan refugees who live in the city and surrounding area.
"The deadline has passed and we haven't had any fresh news," said Jennifer Pagonis, spokeswoman for the UNHCR in Pakistan. "His health is deteriorating. We don't know what sort of care he's been getting."
This week the US ambassador, Anne Patterson, visited Quetta, which is close to the Afghan border, where she held talks about Solecki with the police chief and the head of the paramilitary Frontier Corps for the province.
Baluchistan has been home to successive national insurgencies since the 1970s. But until now foreigners had not been targeted by the secular rebel groups who have sought international sympathy for their cause.
The Pakistan Taliban, who also have a strong presence in Quetta, do kidnap foreigners, and are currently holding at least two diplomats elsewhere in Pakistan. Many have suggested that the Bluf is a front for a Taliban group or another Baluch nationalist outfit, with even its acronym suggesting that it is not a real organisation.
The UN has been unable to hold direct talks with Solecki's kidnappers, who have communicated only through the press. Bluf has previously set deadlines which passed.
In setting the latest ultimatum, on Monday, of a 48-hour cut-off, a Bluf spokesman, Shahak Baloch, told a Pakistani news agency that his group had given the government a list of 1,109 people and 141 women it wanted released but blamed UN officials for not showing "seriousness".
"His condition is deteriorating, we are providing him every possible medical treatment, but it is making no difference," Baloch had said.
The Pakistani authorities have put forward different theories of who is holding Solecki. The police have suggested that it is the local Marri tribe, while the Frontier Corps has accused a militant nationalist group, the Baluchistan Republican party, whose leader is based in Afghanistan.
Baluchi separatists accuse Pakistan of exploiting the province's natural resources, principally gas deposits. Militant groups are seeking to separate the province from the rest of Pakistan. The Pakistani army has ruthlessly suppressed Baluch nationalism, partly by taking those thought to be involved into unofficial military custody.
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