Afghan FM condemns attack on Pakistan embassy

The Foreign Minister of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi on Saturday condemned the attack on the Pakistan embassy in Kabul.

The Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Abdul Qahar Balkhi shared details of a telephone conversation between Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Muttaqi on Twitter.

According to the tweet, the Afghan foreign minister assured Bilawal that "special attention will be paid to the security of the embassy," adding that "full efforts will be made to identify and prosecute the perpetrators".

Bilawal, in response, stated that "such incidents cannot undermine the relations between the two countries," adding that "they would not allow anyone to succeed in such nefarious acts".

The telephone conversation took place after 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 on Friday.

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

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. However, it added that a Pakistani security guard, Sepoy Israr Mohammad, was critically wounded while protecting the ambassador.

Sepoy Israr had been evacuated to Pakistan, the Foreign Office said. “The helicopter carrying the injured security guard Israr Mohammad in today’s attack on our mission in Kabul, has landed in Peshawar,” the spokesperson said.

The FO also said the Afghan charge D’affaires in Islamabad had been called in over the “extremely serious lapse in security” and that he told them that security has been “beefed up” at Pakistan’s mission.

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.