Pakistan’s Kabul embassy attack: US calls for transparent investigation

US State Department spokesperson Ned Price has called for a full and transparent investigation into the attack on Pakistan’s embassy in Kabul, in what Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif called an assassination attempt on the head of the mission.

“United States condemns the attack on the Pakistani Embassy in Kabul targeting its head of mission,” Price said in a weekly press briefing on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s Special Representative for Afghanistan Muhammad Sadiq asked the Afghan government to beef up the security of our embassy and its personnel, reports Dawn.

The demand comes a day after the attack on Pakistan’s embassy in Kabul on Friday that targeted the Chargé d’Affaires (CdA) to Afghanistan Ubaidur Rehman Nizamani.

Nizamani was unscathed but his guard was critically wounded.

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In a series of tweets, Sadiq said: “Our top most priority is the security of members of our mission. First and foremost, the Afghan interim government will need to beef up the security of our embassy and its personnel.”

He assured that the “government of Pakistan will also provide necessary resources to further enhance security of our diplomats to ensure continued and effective discharge of duties by them in the most important foreign Capital for Pakistan”.

While Nizamani remained safe, security guard Sepoy Israr Mohammad, was “critically injured” in the attack while protecting the mission head.

Sadiq said that the sepoy who took bullets on chest was evacuated to Combined Military Hospital in Peshawar last night by a special plane.

He saluted the extraordinary courage and devotion to duty of the guard and wished him a speedy recovery.

An embassy official told AFP that a lone attacker came behind the cover of houses and started firing.

Kabul police spokesman Khalid Zadran said one suspect was arrested after security forces rushed to the embassy and stopped the ongoing firing.

He said details of the clearance operation would be shared later, adding that weapons were recovered.

The Afghan foreign ministry and several Pakistani officials condemned the attack.