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| India-Pakistan |
| Top Afghan diplomat abducted in Pakistan ambush |
| 2008-09-22 |
| PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) - Unidentified gunmen abducted Afghanistan's ambassador-designate to Pakistan and killed his driver Monday in a brazen ambush in the northwestern city of Peshawar, officials said. Six attackers in a black car chased the vehicle of Abdul Khaliq Farahi, the Afghan consul general in Peshawar, forced it to pull over and shot his driver in the head, witnesses said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the incident was likely to heighten tensions over Afghan allegations that Pakistan is failing to crack down on Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants in its tribal border regions."The driver was killed in the firing, consul general Abdul Khaliq Farahi has been abducted," Zahir Khan Babari, an official at the Afghan consulate, told AFP. The kidnappers were apparently aware of the Afghan diplomat's movements, Babari said. "They were waiting for him and when he came they seized him from his car," he added. Police said they had sealed off all entry and exit points to the troubled city near the Afghan border, which adjoins the rugged tribal belt. The diplomat was heading from the consulate in the city centre to his home in a plush suburb when he was attacked, police officer Banaras Khan said. "The driver was killed, it was an Afghan consulate car. Gunmen then whisked him away in their car. I am on the spot, we are investigating," Khan told AFP by telephone. The information minister for Pakistan's North West Frontier Province, Mian Iftikhar Hussain, confirmed that Farahi had been kidnapped. The Afghan diplomat had recently been promoted as ambassador to Pakistan, consulate official Babari said, adding that he was yet to take over the position since his papers were still with the Pakistani foreign ministry. Witnesses said six people pursued the Afghan envoy in a black car. They forced Farahi out of the car and when the driver resisted they shot him dead. |
| Posted by:tu3031 |