Lahore, August 16(ANI): The abduction of US national Warren Weinstein in Lahore seems to be a case of kidnapping for ransom, according to a senior official close to the investigators.
Weinstein, a 70-year-old business development consultant, worked in Pakistan for the Virginia-based aid contractor J.E. Austin Associates Inc, and was scheduled to return home to America on Monday, but was kidnapped at gunpoint in Lahore on Saturday.
"Investigations conducted so far suggest the involvement of gangsters who committed the heinous crime to extort maximum ransom under duress," The Nation quoted the senior official, as saying.
Another official claimed that investigation experts had intercepted a phone call, wherein the gangsters were talking about ransom for the safe release of Warren.
"It could be a hoax call, but the investigators are taking it very seriously," he added.
When contacted, a spokeswoman for the US embassy in Islamabad said that they were in touch with the law enforcement agencies and the Pakistan Government in this regard.
When asked whether someone contacted them or demanded ransom for Warren's safe release, she replied: "No, we don't have such information."
Jere Van Dyke, a CBS News consultant, who was held hostage in Pakistan for six weeks in 2008, said that the attack seemed very sophisticated.
"It shows that militant groups can act with impunity right in the middle of the most sophisticated city in Pakistan," CBS News quoted Van Dyke, as saying.
Van Dyke's kidnappers did not make demands for ten days, which is typical, to make sure that authorities do not know where they are hiding. (ANI)
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