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US Official to VOA: Pakistan Cooperating with FBI in Search for Kidnapped American


VOA's Lina Rozbih interviews Ambassador Marc Grossman
VOA's Lina Rozbih interviews Ambassador Marc Grossman

US Envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Marc Grossman says cooperation "excellent."

US Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Marc Grossman, tells VOA’s Afghan Service that Pakistani authorities are cooperating with the FBI in the search for an American development expert kidnapped in Lahore on Saturday.

In a wide-ranging interview with VOA’s Lina Rozbih, Ambassador Grossman said, “We have received excellent cooperation from the Pakistani authorities, and especially the authorities in the Punjab.” Ambassador Grossman told VOA that FBI officials in Pakistan and in Washington have been assisting Pakistani authorities who are in charge of the investigation into the kidnapping of 70 year old development consultant Warren Weinstein.

VOA’s TV Ashna, which broadcasts to Afghanistan in Dari and Pashto, broadcast the interview with Ambassador Grossman Thursday. The interview is also posted on the VOA Dari and Pashto websites.

Asked if the series of assassinations and attacks that have recently rocked Afghanistan would pose a threat to the transition to Afghan authority, Ambassador Grossman told VOA he did not think so. “I hope that the response of the Afghan people will be to see that these assassinations show the insurgents for what they are. These are people who use 8-year-old girls as suicide bombers. People who send people to funerals with bombs in their turbans. At some point, I think the Afghan people will see that they [the insurgents] are showing their real face here,” Ambassador Grossman said.

Questioned about the future of US/Afghan relations, the ambassador said the two countries were working on a strategic partnership document that would be a sign, “not just to the insurgents but to the people of Afghanistan…that we’ve learned the lesson of 1989 and 1990. We are not going to just disappear from the area and the region.”

TV Ashna, a one-hour VOA news broadcast in the Dari and Pashto languages, has gained a growing audience in Afghanistan with its dynamic interviews, news and sports reporting. It is broadcast on RTA, the Afghan state television network.

For more about VOA visit our main website at www.voanews.com. For Media inquiries contact Kyle King in Washington at kking@voanews.com.

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