US working with family of kidnap victim in Pakistan

WASHINGTON: The State Department is coordinating with Pakistani officials on an investigation of the Saturday abduction of a US citizen in Lahore, and said it was providing consular support to the man's family.

Police said the American aid expert was kidnapped at gunpoint from his house after gunmen stormed through the back door and overpowered his guards.

"We are working with local authorities on the investigation, and we also are in contact with next of kin and are providing the family with consular support," State Department spokeswoman Joanne Moore told AFP.

The US embassy in Pakistan said the man had been identified as Warren Weinstein, an international development contractor for private firm J.E. Austin Associates.

He was snatched at dawn in the upmarket neighborhood of Model Town, just two days before he was due to return to the United States after more than four years in the deeply conservative, nuclear-armed Muslim country. (AFP)