News

Consulate worker shot dead

November 13, 2009 Edition 2

PESHAWAR, Pakistan: Gunmen killed a Pakistani working at the Iranian consulate in the north-western city of Peshawar yesterday, adding to security fears in Pakistan as the country presses an offensive against the Taliban along the nearby Afghan border.

No group claimed responsibility for the attack, which comes amid tensions between Pakistan and Iran over Tehran's allegations that Pakistani intelligence agents had a role in a deadly suicide bombing in Iran last month.

The attackers opened fire on Abul Hasan Jaffri while he was in a car near his home in a central part of Peshawar, said police official Mohammad Kamal. Jaffri, who was the director of public relations at the consulate, died at a military hospital. The gunmen escaped after the shooting.

The US embassy in Pakistan condemned yesterday's assassination, saying it represented an effort "by extremists hoping to isolate Pakistan from its supporters in the international community".

Tehran, too, expressed its disgust, calling the killing a "terrorist and inhuman act".

Meanwhile, the latest fighting in South Waziristan near the Afghan border killed 22 militants and five soldiers, the army said yesterday.

Police arrested seven suspected Taliban militants in the southern city of Karachi yesterday. Authorities confiscated suicide vests and about 300kg of explosives from the men, said Karachi police chief Waseem Ahmed. - Sapa-AP