Unidentified gunmen kidnapped a senior Iranian diplomat after killing his bodyguard from Hayatabad Phase-IV on Thursday, a day after a US official was shot dead along with his driver in the nearby University Town locality.
The abducted 57-year-old diplomat, Heshmatollah Attarzadeh, had been serving as commercial attache at the Iranian Consulate in Peshawar for the past three years. A police official said the diplomat had just driven his car (CC-2921-Peshawar) out of his residence in Phase-IV, Hayatabad, at around 7:40 am when two vehicles intercepted him.
The gunmen killed a Constable, Syed Sajjad Hussain Shah, deputed on the security of the diplomat, after he offered resistance. Attarzadeh has been living in the city alone. His family had recently returned to Iran.
Locals said they heard four shots and when they came out of their houses, they saw the constable lying in a pool of blood. The cop was rushed to hospital where he could not survive. There were reports that the Iranian diplomat was shifted to somewhere in the Khyber Agency. The political authorities on Thursday raided different places to recover Heshmatollah Attarzadeh.
The federal government, while taking stern notice of the incident, directed Interior Adviser Rehman Malik, NWFP Chief Minister Amir Haider Khan Hoti and others concerned to take prompt action for the safe recovery of the kidnapped diplomat.
Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Muhammad Suleman, while talking to newsmen at the funeral prayers of the slain cop, Syed Sajjad Hussain Shah, suspected the recent kidnappings might be a reaction to their swoop on kidnappers in many areas. He said a new security plan had been prepared for the city that would be soon implemented.
Meanwhile, sources said Americans settled in the provincial capital have already been directed to restrict their movement, after the attack on the American official on Wednesday. They were directed not to come out of their houses till further orders.
Agencies add: Meanwhile, the Iranian foreign ministry summoned Pakistan’s envoy to Tehran over the kidnapping of Heshmatollah Attarzadeh, according to Iranian state television. The report said an official with the ministry, Mohammad Ali Ghanezadeh, protested to the Pakistani charge d’affaires over allegedly inadequate protection of foreign diplomats in Pakistan.
The report on Thursday quoted Ghanezadeh as saying Iran expected Pakistan to work to have the diplomat released “as soon as possible”. The Pakistani envoy, Nasrullah Khan, promised the government would take all possible efforts to free the diplomat.
Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani on Thursday strongly condemned the abduction of Heshmatollah Attarzadeh. He said the government would take all necessary measures for the safety of the kidnapped envoy.
He also expressed condolence over the killing of the envoy’s security guard by captors during the incident. NWFP Governor Owais Ahmed Ghani on Thursday strongly condemned the kidnapping of Iranian commercial attachÈ and killing of his gunman in Peshawar and expressed his sorrow over the incident.
In a message issued here, the governor described the incident as an outrageous act and said culprits involved in it would be hunted down and brought to justice. He promised to make every effort to ensure the safe recovery of the diplomat.
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