Pakistan summons Afghan envoy over Karachi terror attack

Pakistan has lodged a protest with the Afghan Taliban authorities over the recent terrorist attack in Karachi, summoning Afghanistan’s chargé d’affaires in Islamabad and conveying a formal demarche over the involvement of Afghan nationals in the incident.

A bomb and gun attack on a Sindh Rangers facility in Karachi martyred three paramilitary troops and injured four on Saturday, the military’s media wing said on Sunday, as the country battles a surge in violence.

Militants from the Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a faction of the Pakistani Taliban, detonated an explosive at the entrance of the Rangers camp in Gulistan-i-Jauhar neighbourhood before opening fire on the troops, the military said in a statement.

Foreign Office Spokesperson Tahir Andrabi on Monday said the Afghan chargé d’affaires was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Sunday night, where Pakistan conveyed its protest over the attack.

He added that Pakistan’s Ambassador to Afghanistan, Ubaid-ur-Rehman Nizamani, also delivered a similar demarche to the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kabul.

The Foreign Office said the demarches were issued after investigations established that Afghan nationals, including one suspect who was apprehended alive, were involved in the Karachi terrorist attack.

The spokesperson said the incident once again demonstrated that Afghan soil and Afghan nationals continued to be used to plan and carry out terrorist attacks inside Pakistan.