Gunmen abducted an American man from his home in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore on Saturday, officials said, an unusually brazen raid that showed the threat to foreigners living in the militancy-wracked country.
U.S. Embassy spokesman Alberto Rodriguez confirmed the kidnapping. NBC News is not identifying the victim amid concern for his safety.
No one has claimed responsibility for the abduction, NBC News reported.
Police said the man was working on a development project in the country's lawless tribal areas, where Pakistani troops have been battling Islamist insurgents for years.
Reuters reported that the abducted man is employed by consulting firm .
'They tortured the guards'
According to Pakistani police, between eight and 10 assailants broke into the American's house in an upscale neighborhood in Lahore after persuading the guards to open the gate by saying they wanted to give them food — an act of sharing common during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
"Two of the assailants came from the front gate while about six others used the back door," police official Tajamal Hussain told Reuters. "They tortured the guards and then took the American with them."
Police officer Attiqur Rehman said the motive for the attack was not immediately clear.
Anti-U.S. sentiment runs high in Pakistan, and already prickly ties between Islamabad and Washington hit a low point after the May 2 killing of al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden in an attack that Pakistan termed a breach of its sovereignty.
Foreigners have frequently been targeted by militants in Pakistan in recent years, but it is unusual for the assailants to stage such a raid on a victim's home. Also, kidnappings for ransom are common in Pakistan, though most of the victims are Pakistani.
Abductions are usually carried out by criminal gangs, though ransoms are also believed to help fund militant groups.
The Pakistani Taliban claim to be currently holding two people from Switzerland kidnapped earlier this summer while they were traveling through a remote and dangerous southwestern region.
They said the couple could be freed in exchange for a Pakistani woman serving a jail term in the United States for shooting FBI agents and U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan.
Americans in Pakistan are considered specially at risk from militant attack because the insurgents oppose Islamabad's alliance with Washington and the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan. U.S. diplomats, aid workers and others are urged to take strong security precautions.
Travel warning
Ties between Washington and Islamabad plummeted this year following the shooting in Lahore of two Pakistanis by a CIA contractor, who was held in jail in the city of 10 million people for two months despite pleas by Washington for his release.
Earlier this week, the U.S. State Department issued a travel warning for its citizens saying that American diplomats are facing increased harassment and they, along with aid workers and journalists, have been falsely identified as spies in the local media.
Eight Pakistani employees of a U.S.-based aid organization, American Refugee Committee (ARC), were kidnapped in Baluchistan last month.