Armed militants on Saturday abducted over 60 government employees, working for the state-owned Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA), in Pakistan’s lawless tribal areas.
“The latest information we have is that no less than 60 men have been kidnapped. The exact figure can be a bit more as we are looking for some missing WAPDA workers,” a government official told this newspaper.
He said the militants were dressed as policemen when they stopped the vehicles of the abductees in the Kurram Agency.
“When the WAPDA vehicles stopped, the militants made all of them hostage and later took them away,” he added. Another official said that no militant group has yet claimed the responsibility. The WAPDA workers were returning from work near the Pak-Afghan border when they were intercepted and kidnapped. The miscreants set one of their vehicles on fire and took the workers to an undisclosed location. Reports said that shortly afterwards, several vehicles were seized from a convoy of civilians travelling to Parachinar, the main city in Kurram.
Meanwhile, the Pakistani Taliban has sent threatening letters to schools in Balochistan province, bordering Iran and Afghanistan, which has forced the institutions to shut down. A number of schools, including at least two girls’ schools, have closed down in Quetta city after threatening letters were received by their managements.
Security was also beefed up in parts of the Balochistan province’s capital and in Mastung. Some of the letters threatened that if purdah (Islamic veil) was not observed in schools, then teachers and administrative heads “will have to bear the consequences”.