Abducted Brit beheaded in Pak

The body of a British Red Cross worker who had been held captive in Pakistan since January was found dumped in an orchard on Sunday with a note attached to it saying he was killed because a ransom hadn’t been paid to his captors, police said.

Khalil Rasjed Dale, 60, was managing a health programme in the city of Quetta in southwestern Pakistan when armed men seized him from the street close to his office. The identities of his captors are unknown, but the region is home to separatist and Islamist militants who have kidnapped for ransom before.

“The ICRC condemns in the strongest possible terms this barbaric act,” said its director-general Yves Daccord.

Dale’s throat had been slit, according to Safdar Hussain, a doctor who examined the body.
Quetta police chief Ahsan Mahboob said the note attached to it read: “This is the body of Khalil who we have slaughtered for not paying a ransom amount.”

British Foreign Secretary William Hague condemned Dale’s killing, calling it a “senseless and cruel act, targeting someone whose role was to help the people of Pakistan.”

Much of Baluchistan and the tribal regions close to Afghanistan are out of government
control, and make good places to keep hostages. Large ransoms are often paid to secure their release, but such payments are rarely confirmed.

There are at least four other foreigners currently being held in Pakistan. Last August, a 70-year-old American humanitarian aid worker was kidnapped from his house in the Punjabi city of Lahore. Al-Qaeda claimed to be holding the man, Warren Weinstein, and said in a video he would be released if the United States stopped airstrikes in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen.