Pakistan takes aim at kidnappers

QUETTA, Pakistan, March 3 (UPI) -- A special strike force has been formed to combat kidnapping in Pakistan's Balochistan province, a provincial official said Saturday.

Provincial Home Secretary Naseebullah Bazai told Dawn News the victims in the past few months include 23 Hindus. Hindus, a small minority in Muslim Pakistan, have been leaving Balochistan for other parts of the country, Dawn said.

At least 70 people have been kidnapped in the Quetta division and only 53 have been freed, Bazai said. He said officials hope the strike force will make the province safer.

Balochistan, Pakistan's largest province, is in the southwest, bordered by Iran on its western side and Afghanistan on the northwest.