September 30, 2008	Tuesday	Ramazan 29, 2008

WARSAW, Sept 29: A Polish firm which employs an engineer kidnapped in northern areas said on Monday that it was poised to pull its staff out of Pakistan.

“We’re preparing the withdrawal from Pakistan of our 18 other employees,” Leopold Sulkowski, boss of Geofizyka Krakow, was quoted as saying by Poland’s PAP news agency.

Mr Sulkowski said after the kidnapping of Piotr Stanczak, Geofizyka Krakow considered its contract in Pakistan to be “broken”.

He said the company still had no information about Stanczak, who was seized on Sunday as he and colleagues were travelling to oil plants northeast of Islamabad to carry out tests.

Stanczak’s two drivers and a security guard, all Pakistanis, were shot dead during the abduction, about 110 kilometres (70 miles) from Islamabad and close to the border with Afghanistan.

Nobody claimed responsibility, but Taliban militants have been blamed for abducting foreigners in the past.

Security forces has been waging major battles against Taliban and Al Qaeda militants, accused of launching attacks on international troops across the border in Afghanistan.

In August, Taliban kidnapped two Chinese telecommunication engineers in the NWFP. Stanczak’s kidnapping came one week after the bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad which left over 50 people dead.—AFP