The Islamic State (IS) group claimed responsibility for last week’s gun attack on the Pakistani embassy in Afghanistan in which the head of the mission escaped unhurt but a guard was injured.
In a brief statement late Saturday, IS claimed two of its fighters attacked the “renegade Pakistani ambassador and his guards” while they were in the yard of the Pakistani embassy, wounding a guard and damaging the building. It gave no further details.
Friday’s attack in Afghanistan’s capital Kabul injured Pakistani guard Israr Mohammad, who belongs to the army’s commando unit. But Ubaid-ur-Rehman Nizamani, the head of the mission, was unharmed.
The strike comes amid rising tensions between the South Asian neighbors over Islamabad’s claims that Pakistan’s anti-government forces are carrying out hideout terrorist attacks in Afghanistan.
Mohammad was taken to Pakistan for treatment. The Foreign Ministry in Islamabad said it was trying to verify the IS claim.
Earlier on 2 December, Pakistan summoned the Charge d’Affaires of Afghanistan to Islamabad and conveyed its deep concern over the attack on the country’s Head of Mission in Kabul.
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