Pakistan appealed on Sunday for the safe release of an official in its Baghdad embassy who was seized by an insurgent group in the latest kidnapping of a foreigner in Iraq's lawless capital. Officials said Malik Mohammad Javed, an assistant at the embassy, vanished after going to a mosque to pray on Saturday. "I appeal to the kidnappers to release Malik Mohammad Javed. He is a civilian member of the embassy staff," Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told a news conference. "The government of Pakistan strongly condemns this incident." Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said Javed had contacted the Baghdad embassy to say he was unharmed. "Persons claiming to be members of Omar bin Khattab group have apparently kidnapped the official," it said in a statement released in Islamabad. Insurgent groups and criminal gangs have abducted scores of foreigners in Iraq seeking to pressure foreign troops to leave or to earn ransom. Thousands of Iraqis have also been kidnapped. The Omar bin Khattab group has not previously been heard of or claimed responsibility for other kidnappings.
