Red Cross doctor found beheaded in Pakistan

QUETTA, Pakistan —The beheaded body of a kidnapped British doctor working for the International Committee of the Red Cross was found by the roadside on Sunday in the southwestern Pakistan city of Quetta, police and Red Cross officials said.

Khalil Rasjed Dale, 60, was abducted by suspected militants on Jan 5 while on his way home from work.

"The ICRC condemns in the strongest possible terms this barbaric act," ICRC Director-General Yves Daccord said in a statement. "All of us at the ICRC and at the British Red Cross share the grief and outrage of Khalil's family and friends."

British Foreign Secretary William Hague also condemned the killing.

"This was a senseless and cruel act, targeting someone whose role was to help the people of Pakistan, and causing immeasurable pain to those who knew Mr. Dale," Hague said in the statement.

A senior police officer said the Pakistan Taliban had claimed responsibility for the killing, saying a ransom had not been paid.

Police discovered Dale wrapped in plastic near a western bypass road. His name was written on the white plastic bag with black marker.

A sharp knife was used to sever his head from the body," said Safdar Hussain, the first doctor to examine the body. "He was killed about 12 hours ago."

Dale is only the third Westerner killed in such a fashion in Pakistan. The others include Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in 2002 and Piotr Stanczak, a Polish geologist, in 2009.

The Pakistan Taliban has been fighting a bloody insurgency against the Pakistani state since its formation in 2007. It is close to al Qaida and it claimed credit for a failed car bomb attempt in New York's Times Square in May 2010.

Quetta is the capital of southwestern Baluchistan, Pakistan's biggest but poorest province, where Baluch separatist militants are fighting a protracted insurgency for more autonomy and control over the area's natural resources.

Pro-Taliban militants are also active in the province, which shares borders with Afghanistan and Iran.

Dale had worked for the ICRC and the British Red Cross in Somalia, Afghanistan and Iraq before coming to Pakistan. He had been managing a health program for Baluchistan for almost a year when he was abducted, the ICRC statement said.

"We are devastated," Daccord said. "Khalil was a trusted and very experienced Red Cross staff member who significantly contributed to the humanitarian cause."