Pakistan’s Ambassador to Afghanistan To Return After Assassination Attempt

Pakistan’s ambassador to Afghanistan, Ubaid-ur-Rehman Nizamani, is set to return to Kabul this week, over four months after a failed attempt on his life by the Islamic State group forced him to leave the country. According to a Pakistani official, Nizamani will arrive in Kabul before the Eid-ul-Fitr festival, which marks the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan and will be celebrated this coming weekend. The decision follows a phone call between Pakistan’s foreign minister, Bilawal Ali Bhutto-Zardari, and his counterpart in the Taliban administration, Amir Khan Muttaqi, where Bhutto-Zardari reaffirmed Islamabad’s commitment to a stable, peaceful, and prosperous Afghanistan.

Nizamani was appointed Pakistan’s ambassador to Afghanistan in August 2022, and his embassy was one of the few diplomatic missions to remain in the country after the Taliban’s capture of Kabul in August 2021. In December 2022, he was attacked while out for a routine walk on the Pakistani Embassy grounds. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack. Several countries, including the United States, condemned the attack, and Islamabad called it an “assassination attempt” and recalled Nizamani to Pakistan.