Pakistani authorities have identified the kidnappers of an American working for the UN refugee agency but want to avoid any hasty action that may endanger him, the country's foreign minister said. John Solecki, 49, head of the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Baluchistan province, was kidnapped in the provincial capital of Quetta on Feb. 2 by gunmen who ambushed his car and shot dead his driver. “The people who kidnapped him have been identified and where he was kept was also identified,” Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told reporters in the city of Multan city late Thursday. He did not elaborate on the identity of the kidnappers but said security forces had surrounded the area where Solecki was being kept. A previously unknown group, the Balochistan Liberation United Front (BLUF), said it was holding Solecki and gave a four-day deadline last Sunday for its demand for the release of more than 1,000 prisoners be met or Solecki would to be killed.
