Feed: CNN.com - WORLD
Posted on: Thursday, January 05, 2012 6:47 PM
Author: CNN.com - WORLD
Subject: Official: Red Cross worker kidnapped in Pakistan

A British national working for the International Committee of the Red Cross was kidnapped Thursday in Pakistan's volatile southwestern province of Balochistan, a police official said.

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Red Cross health worker kidnapped in southwest Pakistan

By Shaan Khan, CNN

January 5, 2012 -- Updated 1646 GMT (0046 HKT)

Security guards stand outside the office of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Quetta, Pakistan, on Thursday.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

NEW: The Red Cross appeals for the release of health program manager Khalil Rasjed Dale
NEW: He was seized by armed men while on his way home from work, the Red Cross says
NEW: His family has been told the news, but the kidnappers' motives are not known
The kidnappers released the kidnapped man's driver, a police official says

Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- A British national working for the International Committee of the Red Cross was kidnapped Thursday in Pakistan's volatile southwestern province of Balochistan, police and Red Cross officials said.

Khalil Rasjed Dale, a health program manager, was seized by armed men in the city of Quetta, near the Afghan border, the Red Cross said in a statement.

He was on his way home from work in a clearly marked ICRC vehicle and was just 200 yards from a Red Cross residence when he was abducted, the statement said.

The organization called for his "rapid and unconditional release," and said his family had been informed.

The motives and identity of his abductors are not known, the statement added.

The kidnappers released the man's driver, said Nazir Kurd, a senior police official. He told CNN the man was a Yemeni-born British national.

Najam Saqib, a spokesman for the Red Cross in Pakistan, earlier told CNN the organization has not been contacted by the kidnappers.

"Despite the incident, the ICRC will be continuing its humanitarian work in Pakistan," the Red Cross statement said.

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