Veteran aid worker Kerry Jane Wilson was banking on a "blend-in" strategy to try to avoid the many hostile groups posing a deadly threat to Westerners in Afghanistan.
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Jalalabad, the east Afghanistan city she was visiting, was considered a virtual no-go zone for Westerners and is in the heart of unstable Nangarhar province – a growth region for Islamic State, home to a resurgent Taliban and associated extremist groups as well as local crime gangs.
Like a fair proportion of aid workers in the country the 60-year-old had shunned or could not afford high-level protection measures and had instead relied upon a strategy of keeping a low profile and trying to look like a local.
Her modest non-government organisation Zardozi, which helped local women earn money from sewing, was using a clapped-out old Toyota Land Cruiser that Ms Wilson had been appealing for donations to upgrade, and the compound she was visiting was nondescript.
When she moved she sought to look like a local, but her kidnappers were not fooled.
On Thursday last week four men in government uniforms talked their way past the guard at the door of her gated building, bundled her into a vehicle and sped off into traffic.
She became the third female Western aid worker to be kidnapped in the country in the past 16 months and is unlikely to be released without extraordinary intervention by security forces or payment of a significant ransom, according to security officials.
A source in the aid worker field said there was major concern for her safety given her NGO was small, private and did not have the backup of working with the Australian government.
Her nationality was also a problem given the Australian government's reluctance to get involved in paying ransoms, according to the source.
Ms Wilson's abduction came as little surprise to former police detective Garry Sweet who has been running major security contracts in Afghanistan for seven years.
Mr Sweet, who has worked with all levels of government and private security in the country with his company Australian National Security, Investigation and Collections, said Westerners who opted to try to stay low profile without security were very much at risk.
"It [high-profile security] may make them more identifiable but it also makes them much less likely to be targeted because they are less vulnerable," he said.
"Expats are always a high-value target and especially Caucasians because they stand out in Afghanistan."
Mr Sweet said the whole country was now a high-risk environment for Westerners with probably Kabul at a slightly lower level than elsewhere.
"The threat level for the entire country is continually very high but particularly since the withdrawal of ISAF [International Security Assistance Force, now called Resolute Support Mission] and other international security forces over the past 18 months. As the withdrawal continues, the security situation will continue to deteriorate," he said.
He said a Western woman was kidnapped from the streets of Kabul last year.
"She was on her own outside a guarded compound," he said.
Jalalabad, he said, was probably a higher-risk environment, and even though he was very well connected with local business partners, he would never travel there by road due to the significant risk involved.
The city is approximately 153 kilometres from Kabul and lies in the violence-racked province of Nangarhar bordering Pakistan.
A February aid agencies' briefing document about the province obtained by Fairfax Media describes the province as in "complete disarray", boasting a melting pot of armed groups including Taliban, Islamic State and some other extremist groups.
In daylight Taliban were manning checkpoints 21 kilometres from the centre of Jalalabad, said the briefing by the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit.
Meanwhile in the province's south, Islamic State were engaged in a battle for territory with local tribal forces and Taliban that has seen atrocities such as Islamic State fighters decapitated and their heads stuck on stakes alongside roads.
Given Jalalabad's location, he speculated that if Ms Wilson was taken by Taliban, then she could already have been moved over the border into the lawless Kyhber Pakhtunkhwa, formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan.
"It's a very real possibility, given the proximity," Mr Sweet said.
Mr Sweet said he and his company had been involved in securing the release of two Afghanistan Public Protection Force (APPF) guards who had been kidnapped at Torkham (near the Pakistan border) in recent months.
"The government asked us to negotiate on their behalf and we used our contacts within the local community to achieve a successful result," he said.
He said it might be possible to negotiate the release of Ms Wilson but also warned that the longer people waited, the less chance there is of a successful outcome.
He warned: "It's difficult in these cases as you have to remember you are not allowed to pay money for this person. That could be construed as financing terrorism. You have to be extremely well connected and very cautious in the handling of matters like this."
He said the kidnapping of the APPF staff involving the Taliban was ideological not commercial.
In the past 16 months three aid workers, a man and two women were kidnapped in Afghanistan. Both women were released after a period of months in captivity while the man either escaped or was released through a security operation.
On Thursday, the United States embassy in Afghanistan issued a warning to US citizens in the country about a heightened risk of kidnapping after a failed attempt in the capital Kabul on Monday.
