950806

12 Pakistani

captives in

Somalia not

yet identified

SIKANDER HAYAT

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Government has not inkling as to who are those 12 Pakistanis now being reportedly held hostage by a Somalia Warlord for the last five months.

"We are trying to ascertain the circumstances under which the Pakistanis were captured by an aide of Somalia faction Chief Farah Mohammad Aidid, a Foreign Office spokesman said here on Sunday.

"According to a relief worker quoted by a foreign news agency 12 Pakistanis are being held captive by the Somalia in a house in Mogadishu. They were arrested while fishing at a beach 26 kilometres south of the Somalia capital Mogadishu, the news agency said.

Foreign Office said that it has already asked Pakistan High Commissioner in Nairobi to ascertain facts. "As soon as information is available efforts will be launched to secure their release", he added.

When contacted Iterior Minister Naseerullah Babar said that he has passed on the information about the captives as reported in the press, to the Foreign Office. But his own perception was that the captive Pakistanis could be members of Tableeghi Jamaat.

It may be of interest to note that a group of about a dozen members of Tablighee Jamaat disappeared in Ethopia last year during their mission and despite the government's efforts their whereabout remain untraced.

According to another source the Pakistanis held in Mogadishu could be the fishermen who wandered into the Somalia territorial waters and were arrested by the Aidid militia.

Pakistanis carry some bitter memories about Somalia where 24 Pakistani peacekeepers were killed in 1993 in a trap laid by the Aidid men when they were distributing food to destitutes. Farah Mohammad Aidid, a warlord whom Foreign Minister Sardar Aseff Ahmad Ali unsuccessfully tried to cultivate during a visit last year, is known for his anti-Pakistan stance drawing his hatred for Pakistanis from his long sojourn in New Dehli as his country's ambassdor before the civil war broke out in his impoverished country on the Horn of Africa.