13 November 2009 / AP, PESHAWAR
Gunmen killed a Pakistani working at the Iranian Consulate in the northwestern city of Peshawar on Thursday, adding to security fears in the country as it presses an offensive against the Taliban along the nearby Afghan border.
No group claimed responsibility for the attack, which comes amid tensions between Pakistan and Iran over Tehran’s allegations that Pakistani intelligence agents had a role in a deadly suicide bombing last month in Iran. The attackers opened fire on Abul Hasan Jaffri while he was in a car near his home in a central part of Peshawar, said police official Mohammad Kamal. Jaffri, who was the director of public relations at the consulate, died at a military hospital. The gunmen escaped after the shooting. Iran is mostly Shiite Muslim, as was Jaffri. Pakistan’s Shiite minority has often been targeted by Sunni Muslim militants like the Taliban and al-Qaeda, which believe they are infidels. An Iranian diplomat in Peshawar was abducted in November 2008. His whereabouts are unknown.
