Envoy calls on Afghan govt to strengthen security at embassy after attack

Pakistan’s special representative for Afghanistan Mohammad Sadiq called on the interim government of Afghanistan to increase security for the Pakistan embassy and its personnel after shots were fired at the embassy in Kabul.

A Pakistani security guard was wounded, in what Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif called “an assassination attempt” on the head of the mission Ubaidur Rehman Nizamani.

Ambassador Sadiq stated that the government of Pakistan would also provide necessary resources to enhance security for its diplomats to “ensure continued and effective discharge of duties by them in the most important foreign capital for Pakistan”.

He added that Ambassador Nizamani and his team were “working in an extraordinarily challenging situation”.

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Sadiq also said that Sepoy Israr Mohammad, who took bullets on the chest to protect the ambassador was “evacuated to CMH (Combined Military Hospital) Peshawar last night by a special plane”.

“Israr displayed extraordinary courage and devotion to duty: salute to this brave son of the soil - a true mujahid,” he said, hoping for the swift recovery of the guard.

Yesterday, a Kabul police spokesman said one suspect had been arrested and two light weapons were seized after security forces swept a nearby building “and prevented the continuation of gunfire”.

An embassy official told AFP a lone attacker “came behind the cover of houses and started firing”. “The ambassador and all the other staff are safe, but we are not going outside of the embassy building as a precaution,” he said.

The Foreign Office in Islamabad said the attack had been aimed at Nizamani, who remained safe.

It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack, which came just days after Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar visited Kabul to meet Taliban authorities to ease tensions along the border.