Afghanistan ’s former prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar narrowly avoided an assassination attempt after his office in Kabul was targeted by suicide bombers.
One person was killed and several guards were injured, but security managed to shoot the attackers dead before they entered the building, which also houses a mosque.
Hekmatyar, a former warlord and Mujahadeen leader, said the attackers wore explosive suicide vests and were dressed in burqas.
“I assure my countrymen that the attempt of those who have done it many times, but they have failed, has failed once again,” he said.
The Hizb-e-Islami party leader added: “It cannot lower our morale or our resistance... we will stand with our nation.”
It is still not clear who was behind the attack, carried out as party supporters held Friday prayers, and no one has come forward to claim responsibility.
Hekmatyar was accused of multiple terrorist attacks and war crimes, including indiscriminately shelling civilians, and assassinating intellectuals, feminists and royalists.
The so-called "Butcher of Kabul's" followers have also been accused of running torture chambers in Pakistan and throwing acid at women.
Despite this, his crimes were pardoned in 2017 as part of a peace deal struck with the then-Afghan government.
The same day as the attempt on his life, shots were fired at the Pakistani embassy in Afghanistan from a nearby building in what was described as an attempt to assassinate the country’s envoy in Kabul, Ubaid-ur-Rehman Nizamani.
The envoy was not harmed, but a bodyguard was shot and “critically injured”, Pakistani officials said. It comes at a time of rising tensions between the neighbouring countries.
Just one day before, Pakistan demanded Afghanistan’s Taliban government prevent terrorist attacks being organised from their soil.
Pakistani Taliban, who are allied with their namesake's across the border and shelter in Afghanistan, claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing earlier in the week in southwestern Pakistan that sent a wave of shock and anger across the nation.
The bombing killed four people and appeared to target police protecting polio workers in the area.
An Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesman strongly condemned the embassy attack, and said that the Taliban will not allow any “malicious actors to pose a threat to the security of diplomatic missions in Kabul”.
“Our security will conduct a serious investigation, identify perpetrators and bring them to justice,” he added.
Police have detained a suspect who was believed to have been in the building from where shots were fired.
