Pakistani consulate official shot dead in Afghanistan

ISLAMABAD: Unidentified gunmen on Monday shot dead a senior Pakistani official at the country’s consulate in Afghanistan’s eastern Jalalabad city, Pakistan embassy in Kabul said. Two gunmen riding a motorcycle sprayed bullets at Nayyar Iqbal Rana, assistant private secretary at the Pakistani consulate, outside his residence in the evening, an official told Daily Times by phone from Kabul. The gunmen fled after the incident. No group has claimed responsibility of the attack so far. Giving details of the incident, an embassy official told Daily Times by phone that Rana came under attack at 6:15 pm local time as he reached home from the consulate. He received several bullets and died at the scene, he said. “There had been serious threats to Pakistani embassy and consulate officials in Afghanistan and we had taken up the issue with the Afghan authorities. We had called for enhanced security of our staffers in Kabul embassy and at the consulates,” he said. The consulate general and other officials shifted the body to a local hospital for autopsy, the official said. “We have asked for autopsy as soon as possible to shift the body to Pakistan,” he said. The 52 year old Rana leaves behind a widow and five children. He hailed from Sialkot and was working in the consulate’s visa section. Afghan ambassador in Islamabad Omar Zakhilwal condemned the incident and said he had asked officials in Jalalabad to extend help to the Pakistani officials. “As soon as I heard about the tragic killing of an official of Pakistan’s Consulate General in Jalalabad, I called our relevant officials in Jalalabad to extend full support on this tragic and unfortunate incident,” ambassador Zakhilwal said. “I also conveyed my deepest sympathies and condolences to both the Counsel General in Jalalabad and also to the Pak MOFA (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) in Islamabad,” the Afghan envoy said in a statement posted on Twitter. Spokesman for Nangarhar governor, of which Jalalabad is the capital, Attaullah Khogyani, said in reported comments that the Pakistani official had “gone outside the designated area without letting the foreign affairs department know. He was killed on way back to home.” Afghan officials said they are investigating. The foreign ministry confirmed the incident and said the diplomatic official of the Consulate General of Pakistan in Jalalabad was shot dead at a shop near his residence by assailants riding a motor bike. Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua summoned Afghan Charge d’Affaires to the Foreign Office to lodge a strong protest over the heinous act and demanded that the perpetrators of violence should be apprehended and brought to justice. The Foreign Secretary demanded foolproof security for Pakistani diplomats and missions in Afghanistan. The Afghan Charge d’Affaires expressed condolences on behalf of his government and assured provision of security to Pakistani diplomats and Missions in Afghanistan besides bring to justice the perpetrators of the terrorist act, a Foreign Office statement said. In June this year, two diplomatic officials of the Pakistani consulate in Jalalabad had been kidnapped while returning to Pakistan by road. Both officials were freed after nearly 12 days in captivity. The president and the prime minister in their separate messages strongly condemned the heinous act and conveyed their deepest condolences and sympathies to the bereaved family. The foreign minister in his message condoled with the aggrieved family and denounced the tragic act of violence. He urged the Afghan government to take urgent steps to apprehend the perpetrators and ensure the safety and security of the Pakistan’s diplomatic personnel and its missions in Afghanistan. Opposition leader Syed Khurshid Shah also condemned the killing of the Pakistani official and urged the Afghan government to ensure security of the Pakistani officials. In a statement, he also demanded that Kabul must arrest those behind the murder and bring them to justice.   Published in Daily Times, November 7th 2017.