Gunmen kidnap American in Lahore

An American aid expert was kidnapped at gunpoint from his house in Lahore on Saturday after gunmen stormed through the back door and overpowered his guards, police said. The US embassy said the man, who police said was in his 60s, had been identified as Warren Weinstein and that he works for a private company.
He was snatched at dawn in the upmarket neighbourhood of Model Town, just two days before he was due to return to the United States after more than four years. Police described how eight kidnappers forced their way into the house as Weistein's guards ate a traditional pre-dawn meal at 3:30 am before beginning the daily Ramazan fast. "Somebody knocked on the main door.
According to one of the guards when he opened the door, he saw three men standing there. They offered meals to the guard, who politely refused," police official Tajamul Hussain told AFP. "Five more men climbed into the house using the back door, overpowered the guards and tied their hands behind their back.
"They asked Weinstein's driver to knock on his bedroom door. When the US citizen opened the door, they snatched him," Hussain said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the kidnapping. "We are working with local authorities on the investigation, and we also are in contact with next of kin and are providing the family with consular support," State Department spokeswoman Joanne Moore told AFP.
Police refused to be drawn on possible motivation in a country where anti-American tensions are at an all-time high, and abductions involve both al Qaeda-linked militants and criminal gangs looking for pay-offs. "We're looking into all angles, whether it was ordinary case of ransom or whether it involves militants," said Hussain.
Police said Weinstein had lived in Lahore since 2006, working for J.E. Austin Associates, which recently completed a development project in Pakistan's north-western tribal belt, considered an al Qaeda headquarters by Washington. "He was to return to the US on August 15 as his firm had completed the project in FATA," Hussain told AFP, referring to the region by its official name the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.
According to its website, the Virginia-based J.E. Austin has completed more than 500 projects in 100 countries on behalf of clients all over the world, including the US Agency for International Development (USAID). It describes Weinstein as an "expert in international development with 25 years experience", who speaks six foreign languages and with a PhD in international law and economics from Columbia University. Police said Weinstein travelled widely within Pakistan, and had returned to Lahore from Islamabad on Thursday.