POLICE in Pakistan have seized several suspects over the kidnapping of a Scottish aid worker after targeting a group believed to be responsible.
Officers in Quetta – one of the country's most volatile areas – apprehended the alleged assailants yesterday following the abduction of 60-year-old Khalil Dale at gunpoint.
Mr Dale, a health programme manager for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), was ambushed by eight masked gunmen as he returned home to a closely guarded area of the city on Thursday.
Senior police official Nazir Kurd said: "We have identified the group involved in Dale's kidnapping. We arrested some people in this regard."
However, he refused to reveal the identity of the group amid security concerns and declined to speculate on Mr Dale's whereabouts.
The arrests came as the family of kidnap victim Linda Norgrove, who was killed in a failed rescue attempt by US forces in Afghanistan in 2010, offered "every sympathy" to Mr Dale's family and friends. Miss Norgrove's father, John, said those closest to the aid worker were facing an "awful situation", but he urged the nurse's loved ones to remain positive.
He said: "We have every sympathy for anybody who faces a similar situation. It's an awful situation to be in and it's the not-knowing part that's particularly hard to take.
"It's a very difficult experience to go through, but I think our advice would be for his friends and family to focus on the positives where possible.
"It's hard, but they should try not to get involved in blaming and try not to become bitter about it. Obviously, everybody is different, but that worked for us. I don't think looking to pass blame or being negative about the situation helps things."
Mr Norgrove added the lack of information could sometimes be frustrating, but authorities often had good reason for keeping things low-key.
He said: "In our experience, the authorities kept us as well informed as was sensible for them to do, which wasn't very well informed, but they had good reason for that. If anybody's negotiating to get a successful outcome to a kidnapping, the crucial thing is to keep the whole thing as low-key as possible so as to avoid the kidnappers thinking they have an extremely valuable target."
Mr Dale, from Dumfries, has been based in Quetta with the ICRC since last February.
The vehicle carrying the nurse was last seen heading towards a road running to the Chaman border crossing with Afghanistan.
Islamabad-based security analyst Amir Rana said kidnappings had increased in the area over the past few months. Mr Rana, director of the Pak Institute for Peace Studies, said: "There has been a rise in kidnappings among the business and trader communities. It's mainly by criminal gangs who then hand them [the victims] over to insurgents or Islamic militants.
"They are getting more desperate."
The ICRC said there was no obvious motive for the abduction and added it was "calling for the rapid and unconditional release of its kidnapped staff member".
The Foreign Office said it was urgently investigating the incident and advised against "all but essential" travel to Quetta.
Mr Dale, who converted to Islam in his twenties, is engaged to an Australian he met a year ago.
He previously worked at Dumfries Infirmary and had been awarded an MBE for his work in Somalia between 1991 and 1993, where he set up a Red Cross programme and distributed food aid.
He has also worked in Iran, where he was
placed under house arrest during the revolution of 1979, and Asia.
Fellow aid worker Miss Norgrove was kidnapped on September 26, 2010, and died in an attempted rescue by US forces on October 8, that year.
Her family later set up a charity in her memory in a bid to help women and children in Afghanistan who had suffered decades of conflict.
The Linda Norgrove Foundation has donated more than £23,000 to projects in the country – the largest donation being awarded to a women's literacy project.
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