Gunmen kidnap Czech tourists in Balochistan

Two women from the Czech Republic were abducted by unknown assailants in Pakistan’s southwestern district of Balochistan, Pakistan Today daily reported. The women were seized on March 13 in the district of Chaghi, which borders Iran and Afghanistan.According to the daily, the women entered Pakistan from Iran as tourists and were travelling in a bus escorted by an armed guard. Later, at the Naukuni Railway crossing, a group of armed men in a Toyota Land Cruiser stopped their bus and took all three of them in an unknown direction.“Later levy guard was thrown out of the vehicle and his weapon was taken away,” the daily quoted Quetta Commissioner Qamber Dashti as saying.He added that no group so far claimed responsibility for their abduction, while several police teams were dispatched to track the abductors and free the women.For his part, Provincial Home Secretary Akbar Hussain Durrani said an intensive search is under way.A Czech Foreign Ministry spokesman, Karel Srol, confirmed the kidnapping, saying the incident took place about 120 kilometers from the Iranian border.