KABUL - Afghan authorities suspect criminals, not militants, kidnapped an Italian woman aid worker, snatched from her car on a street in the center of the capital, Kabul, a government official said on Tuesday.
Clementina Cantoni, 32, from Lombardy, who works for the CARE International aid agency, was kidnapped at about 8:30 p.m. (1600 GMT) on Monday after the vehicle in which she was traveling in Kabul was intercepted and blocked by another car.
Four gunmen grabbed her from her car, bundled her into a white Toyota car and drove away, security officials said.
The kidnapping has raised fears among Kabul's 2,000-strong foreign community that anti-government insurgents might begin Iraq-style kidnappings but investigators suspected criminals not Taliban or al Qaeda militants were responsible.
"There is a perception that a criminal group could be behind this although nobody has claimed responsibility," said President Hamid Karzai's spokesman, Jawed Ludin.
A spokesman for Taliban insurgents denied involvement.
"Our mujahideen (holy warriors) have not kidnapped the woman. We don't indulge in such things," Abdul Latif Hakimi said by telephone. "We don't know who's done it."
The Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) new agency, citing unidentified sources, said the woman had been kidnapped by robbers seeking the release of three detained comrades. They had set a deadline of 1 p.m. (0830 GMT), AIP said.
Security officials said they had no knowledge of a deadline.
Three U.N. workers were kidnapped in Kabul in October and held for 27 days before being released unharmed.
The government said they were grabbed by a gang of criminals who could have been hired by a Taliban splinter faction that threatened to kill them unless Taliban prisoners were freed.
THREAT
Ludin said the same gang might be involved in Cantoni's kidnapping, and they might be seeking the release of their arrested leader.
"Members of the group had recently threatened to kidnap foreigners if the government did not release some members of the group including its head, Telagai," he said.
The suspected head of the gang, known as Telagai, and five other gang members had recently been detained, Ludin said.
AIP said the robbers holding the woman were from a gang known as Tela Mohammad. They had given NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) peacekeepers the deadline, AIP said.
An ISAF spokeswoman denied any knowledge of a claim of responsibility or a deadline. An Afghan official said the real name of the man known as Telagai was Tela Mohammad.
CARE International said Cantoni had worked in Afghanistan for more than three years, most recently helping 10,000 widows eke out a living for themselves and their children.
ISAF troops, deployed to guard Kabul, set up checkpoints soon after the kidnapping to help police catch the gang.
The district in Kabul where Cantoni was kidnapped has several guest houses and restaurants popular with foreigners. A bomb attack in an Internet cafe in the area this month killed three people, including a U.N. worker from Myanmar.
Cantoni's family wished for a speedy and happy ending, Italy's ANSA news agency said.
"The only thing we want to say is that we hope this finishes quickly and happily," ANSA quoted a family friend as saying.
While Kabul is much safer than Baghdad, aid agencies have issued warnings to staff in recent weeks following two unsuccessful attempts to kidnap foreigners. Embassies also urge vigilance.
In April, an American man was forced into the trunk of a car but managed to jump out. In another incident, a car carrying foreigners was intercepted by gunmen but their driver reversed away.