Pakistan security forces in the country's restive southwest were searching Monday for six footballers kidnapped last week, a minister said.

The footballers were abducted in the gasfield town of Sui in Dera Bugti district of Balochistan on their way to a local tournament.

"The entire area has been cordoned off," Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti said in a statement released late Sunday. "All available resources are being utilised for the recovery of the hostages."

Balochistan is Pakistan's largest and least populous province, rich in natural resources but poor by all other measures.