Islamabad referred to the assault on Pakistan’s embassy in Kabul as an “assassination attempt,” while ISIS claimed responsibility for it on Saturday.
In the assault that occurred in the Afghan capital on Friday, a security guard was hurt.
ISIS’s regional branch claimed responsibility for an “attack on the apostate Pakistani envoy and his guards” in a statement reported by terrorism watchdog SITE.
The head of the mission was the target of “an assassination attempt,” according to Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who also asked for an investigation.
After security officers searched a nearby building, a police official in Kabul reported that one suspect had been detained and two small arms had been seized.
Although Pakistan does not formally recognize the Taliban administration in Afghanistan, it maintained a full diplomatic representation and kept its embassy open as the hardline Islamists assumed power in August of last year.
The ambassador and other staff members were secure, an embassy spokesman told AFP, but a lone gunman “entered behind the shelter of homes and started firing.”
The “failed strike,” according to a spokesman for Afghanistan’s foreign ministry, was vehemently denounced.
In a statement, Afghanistan vowed to track down the perpetrators and hold them accountable, saying it “will not allow any nefarious actors to pose a danger to the security of diplomatic missions in Kabul.”
With Islamabad long accused of assisting the extremists while also supporting the US-led war in Afghanistan that overthrew them in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, Pakistan’s relations with the Taliban are tricky.
More than a million Afghan refugees reside in Pakistan, and confrontations frequently occur along their porous shared border.
Since regaining control, the Afghan Taliban have vowed to prevent foreign extremist organizations from operating there.
