Guard kills Afghan diplomat in Pakistan

An Afghan guard with a “personal grudge” shot dead a junior diplomat inside the Afghan consulate in Pakistan's Karachi yesterday, police said.

“The guard, Rehmat Ullah, opened fire on junior diplomat Mohammad Zaki Uro, killing him on the spot and wounding another consulate official,” senior police official Azad Khan told AFP.

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Paramilitary Rangers and a heavy police contingent surrounded the consulate immediately after the attack amid fears of a possible extremist assault.

“There was nothing of the sort and it seems the guard had some sort of personal grudge with the diplomat,” Khan said.

The guard has been arrested, he said, and an investigation launched.

Afghan ambassador to Pakistan Omar Zakhilwal described the shooting on his official Facebook account.

“Firing inside Afg Consulate General in Karachi at around 12:30 pm today ... has been carried out by an Afghan guard inside the compound resulting in fatality of one of our diplomats,” he wrote.

The consulate is located in Karachi's upscale Clifton neighbourhood. The missions of Indonesia, the United Kingdom and France are nearby.

Karachi, Pakistan's largest city and a major business and industrial hub, is rife with political, sectarian and ethnic violence.

A strategic operation in the city by security forces in recent years has brought a lull in violence, but scattered attacks still take place.