The Speaker of the Senate, Bogdan Borusewicz, has cancelled a planned visit for next week by a representative of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan’s Senate to Poland.

Mohammedmiana Soomro, a Pakistani Senator, was scheduled to visit Poland from 12-14 February – a visit arranged in November by the Polish Senate.

Borusewicz has cancelled the visit after the Polish engineer, Piotr Stanczak, kidnapped four months ago in Pakistan by the Taliban, was beheaded on Saturday. The death was confirmed by Poland’s Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski on Monday.

At the end of January, the kidnappers issued random demands to the Pakistani government – to pull military forces out of the Attock region and free some Taliban members from prison – to be met by 4 February. The ultimatum, extended until the 6 February, was not met and the Pole was killed on 7 February.

The Polish Foreign Ministry has issue a letter of protest to Pakistani authorities, asking for a full written response as to what the Pakistani government did in order to try to free the Pole.

The Polish President Lech Kaczynski issued a statement on Monday that called the death an act of terrorism that reminds us that no country, even Poland, is free of terrorism. (mmj)