Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

American Aid Worker Kidnapped in Pakistan

An American citizen working on an aid development project was kidnapped from his home in Pakistan.

Warren Weinstein, 70, who has been identified as Jewish, was snatched from his home in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore early Saturday, according to news service reports.

Weinstein was working as the Pakistan country director for J.E. Austin Associates, a development contractor, on a project sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development. Shortly before his abduction, he had announced that he intended to return to the United States on Monday after successfully completing the project.

No group has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping nor asked for a ransom; kidnapping for ransom is common in Pakistan.

Lahore police told Reuters that they have detained several people for questioning, including the guards posted at the house, who allegedly were overpowered by the armed assailants.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism so that we can be prepared for whatever news 2025 brings.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:

  • Credit the Forward
  • Retain our pixel
  • Preserve our canonical link in Google search
  • Add a noindex tag in Google search

See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.