Thaindian News

Kathmandu, April 14 (IANS) A 36-year-old Pakistani national, employed at the Pakistani Embassy in Kathmandu, survived a day-light bid on his life Thursday, within three days of a Nepali minister facing a similar attack.

M. Asif, 36, was attacked by two men riding a motorcycle in a busy area of the capital Thursday, when Nepal celebrated the start of the indigenous new year.

Police, quoting eyewitnesses, said Asif was shot four times in quick succession by the pillion rider in the Vasundhara area of the city around 9 a.m., close to both his residence as well as the Pakistani Embassy.

He received a bullet in the arm and was rushed to the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital where he was declared out of danger.

Police said five people had been arrested soon after the incident and investigations were on.

The shooting is the latest in a series of audacious attacks in the capital this week that saw an Indian trader die in a gun raid in his own shop and a Nepali minister survive a knife attack close to his own residence.

On Sunday, Anjani Kumar Chachan, an Indian trader dealing in leather goods in Nepal, was killed in his shop, A V Enterprises, in Ganabahal, one of the busiest commercial areas of the capital. It triggered an outcry by Nepal’s business community that forced the police authority to pledge that Chachan’s killers would be found within 10 days.

On Monday, newly named Nepali Energy Minister Gokarna Bista was hacked at by two motor-cycle borne assailants near his residence in the Samakhushi area, receiving gashes on the head and hand.

There were no immediate comments from the Pakistani Embassy to Thursday’s attack.

In the past, the embassy had been embroiled in controversies with at least two employees, including a first secretary, being accused of being involved in criminal activities.

Nepal deported Pakistani first secretary Mohammad Arshad Cheema and Asam Saboor, a clerk at the embassy, after the first was caught with RDX, used for making explosives, at his residence in the capital, and the latter with banned Indian currency.

Cheema was also alleged to have been involved in the hijack of an Indian Airlines flight from Kathmandu to New Delhi by Islamic militants who killed one of the passengers.

There have also been allegations that Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI was working through the Pakistani Embassy in Kathmandu to abet the smuggling of counterfeit Indian currency and terror activities targeting Indian cities.