A roadside bomb hit a convoy of foreign diplomats visiting northwest Pakistan on
Sunday, killing a police officer in their security detail, police said.
Swat district police officer Zahidullah Khan said the diplomats were visiting the Swat valley area on the invitation of the local chamber of commerce to showcase it as a potential tourist destination.
“The squad that was leading the convoy was hit by a roadside bomb,” he said.
Another four police officers were wounded, Khan said. No one has so far claimed responsibility for the attack, which was condemned by Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
🚨 A convoy carrying Russia's Ambassador to Pakistan hit a landmine. While diplomats from Russia, Bosnia, Vietnam, and others were unharmed, four police officers escorting them were injured in the IED blast and hospitalized. An investigation is ongoing. pic.twitter.com/Qlb8ifoGts
— BigBreakingWire (@BigBreakingWire) September 22, 2024
The bomb exploded as the convoy was en route to a hill station and ski resort called Malam Jabba, police and government officials said.
All the nearly dozen diplomats were safe and were heading back to Islamabad, police said.
“All the ambassadors remained safe in the attack and had been shifted to a safe place before their departure to Islamabad,” Deputy Inspector General of police Mohammad Ali
Gandapur told Reuters.
The nationalities of the diplomats were not immediately clear. But an AP report said the diplomats in the convoy were from Indonesia, Portugal, Kazakhstan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Turkmenistan, Vietnam, Iran, Russia and Tajikistan. All of them are safe and a heavy security contingent is at the scene, police officer Javed Khan said.
A Pakistani foreign office statement said the diplomats had returned safely to Islamabad, without giving details of their nationalities. “Such acts will not deter Pakistan from its
commitment towards the fight against terrorism,” it said.
Pakistani counter-terrorist forces maintain a strong presence in the Swat valley, which has long been a hotbed of Islamist militant insurgency. The militants have stepped up
their attacks since late 2022 after breaking a ceasefire with the government.
In 2012, Islamist militants shot and wounded Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai in the valley.
Soldiers and police cordoned off the area after the bombing, and started a search operation, a senior security official told Reuters, adding that a curfew has been imposed in the area.
(REUTERS)
