Kabul to hold embassy attack inquiry: FO

The Foreign Office said on Monday Pakistan remained in active contact with the Afghan authorities on the matter of a terrorist attack on the Pakistan’s Head of Mission in Kabul and expressed the confidence that the perpetrators and their abettors would be brought to account.

Responding to media queries regarding remarks reportedly made by Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, Foreign Office Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said that it was an ongoing investigation and that Pakistan was closely following it. “Pakistan remains resolute in our commitment to fight the scourge of terrorism.”

Last week, shots were fired at the Pakistan embassy in the Afghan capital, in what Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif called “an assassination attempt” on the head of the mission Ubaidur Rehman Nizamani. A Pakistani security guard, Sepoy Israr Mohammad, was critically wounded while protecting the ambassador Nizamani.

An embassy official told AFP a lone attacker “came behind the cover of houses” and started the shooting, adding that the ambassador and all the other staff remained safe. The Kabul police said one suspect had been arrested and two light weapons were seized after security forces swept a nearby building.

Read Ambassador Nizamani in Pakistan days after Kabul embassy attack

The injured Sepoy was evacuated to Pakistan immediately after the attack. however, Ambassador Nizamani arrived in Pakistan on Monday – three days after the attack. According to Express News, Nizamani came to Pakistan for a prescheduled visit to the foreign ministry. He would return to Kabul within the next few days.

The Islamic State group’s Khorasan chapter (IS-K) on Sunday claimed responsibility for the attack, targeting the Pakistani envoy. It said that “two armed” assailants attacked the envoy and his guards with “medium weapons and snipers”, while they were in the embassy’s courtyard.

The Taliban spokesperson claimed on his Twitter handle that Afghan authorities had arrested a "foreign operative" of the Islamic State terrorist group for carrying out last week’s assassination attempt on Pakistan’s top diplomat in Kabul. “This person is a citizen of a foreign country and a member of IS,” Mujahid tweeted.

"The investigation revealed that this attack was jointly organised by IS and rebels. Some foreign malicious circles are behind the attack and the aim was to create distrust between the two brotherly countries," he said, adding that further investigation was ongoing.

(WITH INPUTS FROM AGENCIES)