Ambassador Frederico Silva was in a car that was not hit by a mine and escaped unharmed. The police chief says no diplomats were hurt, but one policeman was killed and others were injured.
A policeman was killed and three others were injured in a mine explosion in Pakistan that targeted a convoy of ambassadors, including Portuguese diplomats, who were not injured. Frederico Silva, Portugal’s ambassador to the country, was in the convoy but was in a car that was not hit by the mine explosion and was not injured, the Foreign Ministry told the Observer. “Living through a situation like this does not happen every day and the memory of what we saw will remain,” the ambassador told RTP, admitting that the attack was aimed at the group of diplomats.
The convoy – which included the Russian ambassador and diplomats from Portugal, Iran, Turkmen, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Bosnia, Zimbabwe, Rwanda and Vietnam – was in Malam Jabba in the Swat Valley in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on the border with Afghanistan when it was hit by the blast.
“Ambassador Frederico Silva, along with a dozen other ambassadors, participated in the Swat Tourism Summit organized by the Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry. On the way to the hotel from the town of Mingora in the Khyber Pakhtunkwa region, a police escort vehicle was hit by a mine,” the Foreign Ministry told the Observer, adding that no casualties were reported among the diplomats.
In an interview with RTP, the ambassador recounted what he experienced on Sunday afternoon: “I was travelling with the other ambassadors in an embassy vehicle. [para a Swat Tourism Summit]. He was the only Portuguese in the entourage,” he began by saying, specifying that “at one point there was an explosion and the vehicle in front [e que era da polícia] was hit. At that time I had no idea what happened. We had to retreat after the explosion.”
In the same interview, Frederico Silva shared that he had “never experienced situations similar to those this afternoon” during his stay in Pakistan. “This is a region considered to be calm. What happened was unexpected.” Regarding who he considers to be the target of the attack, the ambassador believes that “it is difficult to imagine any other purpose” than to reach the caravan that the ambassadors were following. “The type of weapons used are aimed at attacks with the same origin carried out by Pakistani extremist groups, based in Afghanistan,” he continued, assuring that, although caution is “a necessity” for the functions he performs, “living a situation of this type does not happen every day and the memory of what we saw will remain.”
In a note sent to the editorial staff, the MNE reports that it “has already expressed to the Pakistani authorities its condolences for the death of the policeman and its wishes for a speedy recovery for the injured” and that it “deeply regrets the accident that occurred in the Khyber Pakhtunkwa region, in which the Portuguese ambassador, Frederico Silva, participated along with a dozen accredited diplomats.”
Pakistan’s foreign ministry said the diplomats had returned safely to Islamabad and said it was “determined to combat terrorism.”
The Russian embassy in Islamabad confirmed on the social network Telegram that its ambassador was in the convoy when a vehicle escorting the delegation ran over a mine.
No claim has yet been made for the attack, but the region is a stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban (TTP), who are trained for combat in Afghanistan and who defend the same ideology as the Afghan Taliban.
From 2007 to 2009, this movement was responsible for the deaths of thousands of civilians, having taken control of several areas before being repelled by the Army.
Today they maintain sleeper cells and Islamabad accuses the Taliban in power in Kabul of failing to eliminate militants who took refuge on Afghan soil to prepare attacks against Pakistan.
The Taliban government denies these allegations, but relations between Islamabad and Kabul have deteriorated over the issue.
Source: Observadora
