A Swiss couple kidnapped in Pakistan have been smuggled into the tribal belt on the Afghan border.
Olivier David Och, 31, and Daniela Widmer, 28, were abducted on Friday while driving through impoverished and sparsely populated Baluchistan province.
“We have information the Swiss couple have been shifted to the tribal areas,” provincial home secretary Zafarullah Baloch told AFP.
Baloch said the couple were probably transferred to the southwestern town of Zhob, but did not specify where precisely they were likely to be now.
He said searches would continue in Baluchistan and that it was still unclear whether they were kidnapped by criminals or militants.
The couple’s blue Volkswagen van was found abandoned in Killi Nigah after they were snatched in Loralai district.
According to visas stamped in their passports, they entered Pakistan from India on June 28.
Officials say that so far, the kidnappers have conveyed no demands.
The pair entered Baluchistan from Punjab and might have been heading for Quetta, perhaps en route to Iran, officials said.
The Swiss embassy confirmed that the couple had been abducted but that it was “very hopeful that they will be released soon, and safe and sound”.
It was the first known kidnapping of Swiss citizens in Pakistan.
