A Polish engineer kidnapped in Pakistan has been killed by Taliban which has been unofficially confirmed by the Pakistani side, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Saturday.
"We do not have a solid proof but we have received unofficial confirmation that this tragedy indeed took place," Tusk was quoted by Polish news agency PAP as saying, Xinhua reported.
Earlier in the day Pakistan's Dawn News television channel reported a Taliban spokesman claimed that the engineer had been killed because the authorities had failed to free the militants before a deadline that expired at midnight on Friday.
"But there is hope as long as there is no clear evidence," the prime minister said, adding that part of the moves undertaken by the government "have been secret."
"We have used all political, operational and logistic possibilities to avoid this tragedy," Tusk said.
Last week the kidnappers threatened to kill the Pole, a geologist from Cracow, kidnapped by Taliban in north Pakistan in late September.