Agence France Presse

Islamabad, June 28:

Pakistan today appealed to insurgents in Iraq to spare the life of a poor migrant worker they are holding hostage, but stressed it would not cave in to their threats to behead him. Amjad Hafeez, a labourer from a remote village in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, was shown on Arabic television yesterday surrounded by hooded gunmen who threatened to cut off his head in 72 hours unless local prisoners were released. Hafeez, who had been working as a driver for a US company ferrying food from Kuwait to Iraq, was captured in Balad, 75 km north of Baghdad. He had travelled to the Gulf six years ago and after working in Kuwait for several years scored a job as a driver with US contractor Kellogg Brown and Root. The Pakistani government said "its policy is not to accede to conditions or demands put forth by any hostage-takers."