Pakistan demands Germany prosecute consulate attackers  

Islamabad — Pakistan has condemned Germany’s “failure” to safeguard its consulate in Frankfurt from being stormed and vandalized Saturday by dozens of protesters reportedly carrying Afghanistan’s national flag.

In a Sunday statement issued in Islamabad, the foreign ministry, without naming any specific nationality, described the assailants as “a gang of extremists” and decried the security breach of the consular mission, saying it endangered the lives of its staff.

“We are conveying our strong protest to the German government,” the ministry said. It urged Germany to take “immediate measures to fulfill its responsibility” under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations to ensure the security of the Pakistani diplomatic missions and staff in the country.

Social media video from Saturday’s incident shows scores of people holding the tricolor Afghan national flag and jumping the fence to get into the consulate building in Frankfurt, with one of them taking down Pakistan’s flag. The protesters were reportedly shouting abuses and pelted the diplomatic facility with stones.

Diplomatic sources and witnesses in the German city confirmed the authenticity of the video to VOA, but it was not immediately known what the crowd was protesting.

Pakistani official sources told VOA that the attack was “a serious security lapse on the part of the German side.” They said German authorities did not inform the consulate staff about the upcoming protest or increase security for the diplomatic facility as per the “standard operating procedures.” 

There was no immediate reaction from the German government to the attack and its denunciation by Pakistan.

Taliban authorities in Afghanistan did not comment on the incident either.

“We also urge the German authorities to take immediate measures to arrest and prosecute those involved in yesterday’s incident and hold to account those responsible for the lapses in security,” the Pakistani statement said.

Earlier, the Pakistani Embassy in Berlin also denounced the consulate attack as a “reprehensible vandalizing act.” It wrote on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, that the diplomatic mission was in contact with the German authorities “to ensure such a situation doesn’t arise again and the miscreants face legal consequences.”

The embassy appealed to Pakistanis in Germany to remain patient and calm in the aftermath of the episode.

German authorities have increasingly linked Afghan asylum-seekers in the country to criminal activities and announced last month they are considering resuming deportations of criminals to Afghanistan.

The announcement by German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser came just days after a 25-year-old Afghan asylum-seeker was accused of fatally stabbing a police officer in Manheim.

Germany ceased deporting migrants to Afghanistan after the Taliban regained power in August 2021 due to the risk of death in their home country.

“It is clear to me that people who pose a potential threat to Germany’s security must be deported quickly,” Interior Minister Faeser told a June 4 news conference.

She emphasized that her country’s “security interests clearly outweigh the interests of those affected” and, “We are doing everything possible to find ways to deport criminals and dangerous people” to Afghanistan and Syria.

On July 8, Germany abruptly announced the closure of its consulate in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi until further notice. It cited “imminent security concerns” but did not specify them. A consulate announcement last Friday, however, said the German diplomatic facility had “resumed normal operations.” 

The abrupt closure of the German consulate apparently had surprised and upset the Pakistani hosts. 

“Consulates in various cities offer important consular services and promote business-to-business ties,” Pakistani foreign ministry spokesperson Mumtaz Baloch told reporters Friday, just hours before the German consulate announced the resumption of its operations.   

“Closure of operations of any consular mission in Karachi would affect these services and slow down engagement with the biggest metropolis and the financial and commercial center of Pakistan,” Baloch said.
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