UNITED NATIONS (Xinhua/AFP) – UN
Security Council has condemned “in the strongest terms” a “terrorist attack” on the Pakistani embassy in Afghanistan, while stressing the principle of the inviolability of diplomatic premises.
Pakistani ambassador to Afghanistan has survived unscathed a gun attack by unknown armed men at the entrance of the embassy in Afghan capital Kabul, and a security guard of the embassy was injured, Afghan local media reported earlier Friday.
In a press statement, the 15-nation Security Council called on all relevant parties to respect and ensure the safety and security of diplomatic and consular premises and personnel of UN member states.
The council members stressed the fundamental principle of the inviolability of diplomatic and consular premises, and the obligations on receiving states, under the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, “to take all appropriate steps to protect diplomatic and consular premises,” the statement said.
They also “underlined the need to hold perpetrators, organizers, financiers, and sponsors of these reprehensible acts of terrorism accountable and bring them to justice,” added the statement.
Also on Friday, three unidentified militants detonated a car bomb and tried to storm the headquarters of an Afghan party headed by veteran politician Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, officials said.
Ghairat Baheer, an official with the Hizb-e-Islami party, said two attackers were killed as they tried to enter the Kabul building — which also houses a mosque — and a third escaped.
“The car detonated outside, so there was little damage,” he said.
Officials said Hekmatyar — a politician who served as prime minister in the 1990s — was inside at the time, but was unhurt.
Hekmatyar is regarded as a political survivor in Afghanistan, having fought against the Soviet occupation, the Taliban’s first stint in power, and the Western-backed government that ruled until August last year.
The attack came two days after at least 16 people were killed, mostly children, and dozens of others injured in a powerful explosion at a religious school in northern Afghanistan’s city of Aybak, the capital of Samangan province.