SIPA Grad Held Hostage in Pakistan
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| - Image via The Associated Press |
A commenter alerted Bwog earlier tonight to the plight of UN official and CC and SIPA graduate John Solecki, who is being held hostage in Pakistan. Solecki, the head of U.N.’s refugee office in Quetta, Pakistan, was captured on February 2nd. On Monday, his captors said Solecki would be killed if their demands (which include the release of Pakistani political prisoners) are not met in four days. Solecki’s father, Ralph, is a professor emeritus at Columbia. While at Columbia as both an undergraduate and as a SIPA grad student, Solecki studied under Richard Bulliet, who wrote a touching column about him when he was first kidnapped.
In a ray of hope, an Iranian website quotes the Pakistani Interior Minister as saying that Pakistani security forces have discovered where Solecki is being held, and he will soon be released. Regardless, Bwog hopes for his safe return, and our thoughts are with his family.
Tags: alumni, john solecki, richard bulliet, sipa
3 March 2009 @ 11:52 PM · 5 comments
that country is a disaster right now. events like the attack on sri lanka’s cricket team yesterday are the tip of the iceberg of incidents like these.
here’s a harrowing article just out today on the situation there in the context of pakistan’s troubled history:
http://bostonreview.net/BR34.2/mohsin.php
let’s all hope solecki is released safely.
could you have found a less flattering picture of the man?
with all due respect, it must be pretty hard to hold someone that big…
what’s with Columbia grads being held hostage in the middle east?
the ideals inculcated into CU grads don’t mix well with the backwards, intolerant beliefs of a cancer called Islam. Not to single out Islam b/c the same can be said of Christianity, Judaism and Hinduism. Unfortunate that the inability of some to deal with their own mortality and the unknown results in the adherence to archaic beliefs and a reliance on their own skewed interpretations of the teachings of their make believe “friend”.