Associated Press

Islamabad, April 11:

A group claiming to have kidnapped a Pakistani diplomat in Iraq has demanded money for his release, a senior government official said today. Malik Mohammed Javed, a deputy counselor at the Pakistani mission in Baghdad, went missing late on Saturday. Javed’s kidnappers have made a demand for money, said the Pakistani official on condition of anonymity. He would not specify the amount or say how the abductors made contact. The Foreign Ministry yesterday said that a previously unknown group calling itself Omar bin Khattab” had abducted Javed. The ministry said Javed had been allowed to contact the Pakistani embassy in Baghdad to assure officials that he had not been harmed.