American Kidnapped by Gunmen in Pakistan

American officials identified the man as Warren Weinstein, 70, the Pakistan director for J. E. Austin Associates, an international development consulting company based in Arlington, Va.

Mr. Weinstein has been based in Lahore for seven years, according to his profile on the LinkedIn networking Web site. A Pakistani police official said that he lived alone in Model Town, an old, affluent neighborhood, since 2006, and that he had been planning to leave Pakistan within the week.

According to J. E. Austin’s Web site, Mr. Weinstein had been working on the company’s Pakistan initiative for strategic development and competitiveness. He has 25 years of experience in international development projects, speaks six foreign languages and earned a Ph.D. in international law and economics from Columbia, said a company biography that was removed from the Web site on Saturday.

In a statement, the company said that Mr. Weinstein was known for "his commitment to Pakistan’s economic development and poverty reduction."

"His efforts to help make Pakistani industries more competitive have resulted in many hundreds of well-paying jobs for Pakistani citizens and contributed to raising the standard of living in the communities where these businesses are located," the statement added.

Over the past several years, Mr. Weinstein has worked on projects with the United States Agency for International Development and corporations in Pakistan to increase exports in a number of Pakistani industries, including dairy, furniture and medical instruments. According to several Pakistani news accounts, Mr. Weinstein has recently been involved in an effort to strengthen Pakistan’s leather industry by training more skilled workers and bolstering exports.

A Pakistani friend of his said he was advising the provincial livestock department and the Industries Ministry, and was working on a development project financed by the American government in the tribal regions, a largely lawless area where militants operate along the border with Afghanistan.

“He was a very experienced man and said he had worked in many countries in difficult circumstances,” said the Pakistani acquaintance, who asked not to be identified. People who know him said he tried to assimilate into the local culture, wearing the Pakistani national dress, baggy trousers and a long tunic known as a shalwar kameez, and speaking functional Urdu.

The police said at least seven or eight men broke into Mr. Weinstein’s home between 3 and 4 a.m. on Saturday.

American and Pakistani officials have not speculated on a motive, and by Saturday night there had been no claim of responsibility or ransom demand. Mr. Weinstein’s driver and three security guards have been taken into custody for questioning by Pakistani intelligence agents.

Although relations between the United States and Pakistan have been strained recently, the State Department said it was working with the Pakistanis on the case.

The Pakistani ambassador to the United States, Husain Haqqani, said that “Pakistani police and intelligence officials” were investigating. “We will ensure U.S. officials are fully informed of the investigations,” he said.

Relations between Pakistan and the United States have sharply deteriorated since January, when a security contractor for the Central Intelligence Agency shot and killed two Pakistanis in Lahore, and worsened after American commandos flew into Pakistan in May to kill Osama bin Laden without notifying Pakistan.

The State Department issued an alert this month warning Americans of the risk of traveling to Pakistan. “U.S. citizens throughout Pakistan have also been kidnapped for ransom or for personal reasons,” the alert stated, noting the June kidnapping of an American in Lahore, the 2010 kidnapping of an American child in Karachi and the 2009 abduction of an American official working with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Baluchistan.

“The kidnapping of Pakistani citizens and other foreign nationals, usually for ransom, continues to increase dramatically nationwide,” the alert said.

In July, the Pakistani Taliban, linked to Al Qaeda, claimed responsibility for kidnapping a Swiss couple in Baluchistan a restive southwestern province.

A Pakistani journalist who knows Mr. Weinstein condemned the abduction.

“I had met the guy on several occasions,” said the journalist, Raza Rumi, a columnist and consulting editor at The Friday Times, a liberal weekly published in Lahore. “He loved Pakistan. He was a development consultant, working on various assignments with the federal and Punjab governments.”

“It is shocking,” Mr. Rumi added. “How will aid workers come and serve in Pakistan if such incidents continue to happen? Pakistan needs aid and development, and perhaps the criminal gangs and jihadi militants want to keep Pakistan underdeveloped.”

Mr. Weinstein and his wife maintain a split-level home in a middle-class neighborhood in Rockville, Md., a suburb of Washington. No one was home Sunday evening. Neighbors, who did not want to be identified, said Mrs. Weinstein had left to be with her children and had asked that no information be released to the press.

The couple has lived in the neighborhood for about 35 years. In recent years, Mrs. Weinstein has remained at home, the neighbors said, while her husband worked overseas. He would return home intermittently, they said, and his wife sometimes accompanied him on trips.