Giovanni Lo Porto, the Italian aid
worker killed together with US hostage Warren Weinstein in an
anti-al-Qaeda raid in January, was kidnapped together with a
German colleague on January 19, 2012, in Multan on the border
between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Lo Porto, 39, was a native of the Sicilian capital Palermo.
He was abducted with colleage Bernd Muehlenbeck while
working for the German NGO Welt HungerHilfe on a reconstruction
project in the wake of major flooding in the area the previous
year.
They were taken by four armed men from the building where
they lived and worked.
Muehlenbeck was freed last October 10.
Following his release Muehlenbeck said Lo Porto had been
transferred elsewhere a year previously.
A professor at the London Metropolitan University where the
Italian aid worker studied remembered him as a "passionate,
friendly, open-minded student".
"He told me: 'I'm pleased to have returned to Asia and
Pakistan. I love the people, culture and food in this part of
the world'," the professor said.
Friends in London and NGOs in Italy petitioned for his
release, with the latter urging the Italian government and
newspaper editors to "break the wall of silence".
Al-Qaeda initially claimed but then denied the abduction
and Tehrek-e-Taliban Pakistan, the Pakistani Taliban, also
denied holding Lo Porto.
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