Attack on envoy: Pak summons Af diplomat

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has summoned Afghanistan’s Charge d’Affaires in Islamabad and conveyed to him its deep concern over the attack on the country’s Head of Mission in Kabul, it emerged on Saturday.

Ubaid-ur-Rehman Nizamani survived an attack on Pakistan’s embassy in Kabul on Friday, drawing immediate condemnation and a demand for a probe from Islamabad.

Nizamani was targeted by unidentified gunmen while taking a walk in the embassy compound. His guard was critically injured in the attack.

The Pakistan Foreign Office said in a late-night statement that the Afghan diplomat was summoned on Friday evening and “conveyed Pakistan’s grave concern over the serious incident in which, thankfully, the Head of Mission remained unhurt” but the guard was seriously wounded.

“The Charge d’Affaires was conveyed that security and protection of Pakistan’s diplomatic Missions and personnel was the responsibility of the Afghan Interim Government and that this incident was an extremely serious security lapse,” it said.

Pakistan demanded that perpetrators of the attack must be apprehended and brought to justice urgently, an investigation be launched into the serious breach of security of the embassy premises, and that all necessary steps be taken to ensure the security of the diplomatic premises, officers and staff working in Pakistan’s Mission in Kabul and Consulates in Jalalabad, Kandahar, Herat and Mazar-i-Sharif, it said.

Terming the attack “highly unfortunate”, the Afghan Charge d’Affaires said that it was perpetrated by the common enemies of Pakistan and Afghanistan and has been condemned by the Afghan leadership in the strongest possible terms at the highest level.