Poland’s foreign minister, Radoslaw Sikorski, has announced the government will pay one million zlotys (222,000 euros) for information which will help bring the murderers of Piotr Stanczak in Pakistan to justice.
“I would like to help our public prosecutors’ office and the ministry of justice […] and I hereby establish a reward of one million zlotys for information, which could prove helpful in bringing those responsible for the murder before a court,” declared the foreign minister.
During a press conference, Tuesday, Foreign Minister Sikorski said that Poland’s ambassador to the USA submitted a note to the Department of State asking for support in its efforts to capture the murderers of the Polish geologist, who was beheaded on Saturday by Taliban forces in north western Pakistan.
Sikorski, together with Prime Minister Donald Tusk, explained that the government had done everything in its power to free Piotr Stanczak, an engineer who worked for a mining exploration company based in southern Poland.
“I highly evaluate all the efforts of our services. Poland tried everything it could in order to prevent this tragedy. I don’t have any reservations,” said Prime Minister Tusk and strongly denied press speculation that the Taliban demanded a ransom as part of the conditions for Stanczak’s freedom.
Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Grzegorz Schetyna told Polish Radio, Tuesday, that there was a plan to send Polish special forces to Pakistan in order to try and release Piotr Stanczak but this was soon abandoned as preparing military action in the mountainous region of Pakistan, close to the border with Afghanistan, was simply not feasible.
Could they have done more?
But criticism of the government’s efforts, or lack of them, to secure Stanczak’s release, mounts.
The Dziennik daily claims that opportunities to get the Polish engineer free were wasted.
The newspaper also claims that an unnamed Polish businessman formerly connected with the special services carried out negotiations on his own. According to the newspaper, he contacted top government members in neighbouring Afghan, trying to probe for a possible outcome. He enquired about the possibility of contacting the kidnappers, and paying the ransom.
Information coming from Kabul showed that the prisoner’s release could be obtained this way. But then, on Febuary 2, the Taliban kidnapped John Solecki, the American head of the United Nations High Commissioner Department for the Refugees in Pakistan. From that moment on, the Polish engineer was doomed to death as the Taliban became more emboldened, claims Dziennik.
An insider claims Afghani contacts reported that the kidnappers no longer cared about the financial ransom, but started to concentrate on making excessive political demands. The informer also claims that instead of negotiating with government in Islamabad, the Polish authorities should have dealt more directly with the Pakistani secret services, who have much more influence on the tribal territories in the border region and who knew the whereabouts of Stanczak. (jm,un,pg)
Source: PAP, IAR, Dziennik
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Beheaded Pole’s body found, north western Pakistan, thenews.pl, Feb 9