Saudi govt official condemns ‘criminal attack’ on diplomat

AFP/Riyadh/ Karachi

Pakistani security officials inspect the bullet-ridden vehicle of Hassan al-Khatani, a staffer of Saudi consulate in Karachi, after he was killed by four people on two motorbikes on the way to his office in Karachi yesterday

Saudi Arabia condemned as “criminal” an attack that killed one of its diplomats in Pakistan yesterday, urging authorities there to tighten security measures. “The kingdom strongly condemns the criminal attack that targetted one of its members, Hasan al-Khatani, who was treacherously assassinated while on his way to work,” said a foreign ministry official, quoted by SPA state news agency. Saudi Arabia had asked the Pakistani authorities “to tighten their security measures around the consulate in Karachi and the Islamabad embassy, and on their staff,” said the unnamed official. “The foreign ministry is continuing its investigations in co-ordination with Pakistani authorities,” SPA reported. The Saudi diplomat was killed in a hail of gunfire by drive-by shooters in Karachi, the second attack on Saudi interests in Pakistan’s biggest city in less than a week, officials in Pakistan said. The motive for the attack was unclear, but authorities said they were investigating whether it was connected to the death of Saudi-born Osama bin Laden, whom US forces killed in the city of Abbottabad on May 2. Police said Khatani worked in the consulate’s security department and was driving a vehicle with diplomatic plates when two motorcycle riders unleashed a hail of gunfire at a crossroads in the city’s upmarket Defence neighbourhood. Karachi city police chief Iqbal Mahmood said militants fired four bullets, killing him on the spot. In another drive-by attack last Wednesday, assailants threw two grenades at the consulate in Karachi in what officials said could have been reaction to bin Laden’s death. The Pakistani Taliban, blamed for some of the worst acts of violence in the country, last Friday claimed a double suicide bombing that killed 89 people outside a police training centre as their first revenge for bin Laden. Karachi has been awash with political violence, crime, kidnappings and a variety of hardline extremist groups are thought to operate in the city. Saudi Arabia condemned last week’s attack on its Karachi consulate as a “terror attack” and said it had “full confidence” in Pakistan’s ability to bring the assailants to justice and provide the necessary protection to the mission.