Pakistani engineer kidnapped in South Sudan

By Aamir Latif

KARACHI, Pakistan

A Pakistani engineer working for an international petroleum company has reportedly been kidnapped in South Sudan, his family said on Sunday.

Engineer Ayaz Hussain Jamali, a resident of Pakistan's southern Badin district, was kidnapped by rebels from South Sudan's capital Juba a week ago, local broadcaster Dawn News reported quoting Babar Jamali, a younger brother of the kidnapped engineer.

Babar who also works for the same petroleum company in Juba feared that his brother had been kidnapped for ransom- a frequently adopted tactic by rebels to meet up their war expenses.

According to Hindustan Times, two Indian engineers of the same company had also been abducted by rebels recently from Juba.

The rebels, the newspaper reported, demanded $1million for release of Indian engineers, which the South Sudan government had refused to pay.

However, neither Pakistani nor Indian foreign ministry has made any statement on the abduction of their respective citizens, Dawn News said.

South Sudan, the world's youngest nation, has been grappling with a fierce ethnic violence and civil war since its inception in 2013.