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The attacker failed to injure the Pakistani ambassador, but shot and wounded his bodyguard outside his post in Kabul.
“Killing intent” is targeting Pakistan’s top diplomat in Afghanistan, Pakistan’s prime minister said, as tensions between the neighboring countries escalate.
The head of the mission, Ubaid-ur-Rehman Nizamani, is the one who wants to attack his embassy, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan said on Friday.
“I strongly condemn the assassination attempt on the Pakistan Head of Mission, Kabul,” Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Twitter.
The attacker failed to injure the Pakistani ambassador, but shot and wounded his bodyguard, Sharif added. There is no immediate confirmation of the guard’s condition.
“I want an immediate investigation and action against those who committed this crime,” Sharif said.
The consul’s office said the lone gunman “came behind the house and started shooting”.
“The ambassador and other staff are safe, but we are not going outside the embassy as a precautionary measure,” he said.
Nizamani arrived in Kabul last month to serve as one of the few embassies to remain active since the Taliban took over the country in August 2021.
The Taliban’s Foreign Ministry spokesman condemned the attack.
“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan strongly condemns the attempted and failed attack on the Pakistani embassy in Kabul,” spokesman Abdul Qahar Balkhi said on Twitter.
The shooting comes a day after the government of Pakistan ordered the Taliban in Afghanistan to stop violence from their soil.
The Pakistani Taliban, a cross-border affiliate of its namesake, claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing earlier in the week in southwestern Pakistan that sparked fear and anger across the country.
