Afghanistan: Pakistan issues clarification after 'hackers' attack Kandahar consulate

Kabul: The Pakistan consulate in the Afghan city of Kandahar has claimed that its Twitter account was hacked on Friday, adding that normal service was later restored.

“(The) official account of the Consulate General of Pakistan Kandahar was hacked a while ago which was immediately recovered. Unsolicited tweets have been deleted,” the consulate general of Pakistan in Afghanistan’s Kandahar city said in a statement.

Some of those ‘unsolicited tweets’ had announced that the Pakistan consulate in Kandhar will be closed for two days in protest against alleged support to the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan – also known as the Pakistan Taliban – by the Taliban government of Afghanistan.

“Pakistan Govt urges local Taliban Militia to take strong action against TTP Militants who have bloods of innocent Pakistanis on their hands and not provide safe heaven in Pashtuns dominated areas,” the now-deleted tweet allegedly posted by hackers said.

Another Twitter post, which has new been deleted read, “This maybe a first step in severing diplomatic ties between Pakistan & Local Taliban Militia government.”

While clarifying that these tweets had been posted by hackers, the Pakistan mission in Kandahar also issued an apology.

“The Consulate offers sincere apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused. The matter is being reported to Twitter,” it said in a statement.

Pakistan embassy attacked in Kabul

Meanwhile, following Friday night’s attack on the Pakistani embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan’s Acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi promised his Pakistan counterpart Bilwal Bhutto Zardari that special attention will be paid to the security of Pakistan’s embassy in Kabul.

During a phone call with Pakistan foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Amir Khan Muttaqi also said that the Taliban government of Afghanistan is trying to find the perpetrators of the attack on the Pakistan Embassy and bring them to justice.

According to Afghanistan’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Qahar Balkhi, Pakistan foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that such attacks cannot destroy the relations between the two countries.

On Friday evening, shots were fired Friday at the Pakistan embassy in Afghanistan’s capital Kabul in what Pakistan’s prime minister Shehbaz Sharif described as an attempt to assassinate his country’s envoy in Kabul.

The Pakistan envoy to Afghanistan was not harmed, but a bodyguard was wounded, Pakistani officials said.

Former Afghan PM Gulbuddin Hekmatyar attacked

A prominent politician and warlord, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, also escaped unhurt a separate attack in the Afghan capital on Friday, his office said.

The attack on Pakistan’s embassy in Kabul comes at a time of rising tensions between the neighboring countries. Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif called the shooting an “assassination attempt” against Pakistan’s representative in the country, in a tweet he posted.

Pakistan’s foreign ministry said in a statement that the assailants had failed to harm its head of mission Ubaid-ur-Rehman Nizamani but shot and “critically injured” a security guard. The statement said “the compound of the Embassy of Pakistan in Kabul came under attack” without providing further details.

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