Son of Pakistan Embassy staff worker in India kidnapped

Unidentified assailants briefly abducted the 19-year-old son of a Pakistan Embassy staff worker in India and photographed him with dead bodies this week before freeing him, Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.

The bizarre incident happened in New Delhi on Tuesday when Roshan Ali, the son of an official at the High Commission for Pakistan, was "abducted and harassed by unknown persons," the ministry said in a statement issued in the capital, Islamabad.

There was no immediate reaction from India. A spokesman at India's Foreign Affairs Ministry said in New Delhi that officials there had just learned of the claims and were assessing them. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said that India's acting high commissioner in Islamabad, T.C.A. Raghavan, had been summoned Wednesday to appear before Pakistani officials, who lodged a strong protest with him over the incident.

"During his detention at an unknown location, the hands of Mr. Roshan Ali were smeared with the fresh blood of three dead bodies lying in the room," the ministry statement said. "He was forced to hold a large blood-stained knife in his hands and to stand next to the dead bodies."

"He was then photographed in various poses with the dead bodies," it said, adding that the youth was later thrown out of a vehicle after midnight.

Ali found a handwritten note in his pocket suggesting he leave New Delhi within five days because the abductors had photographs that could be used to incriminate him, the statement said, reports the AP. I.L.