Bomb wounds 3 at Pakistan consulate in Afghanistan
(Adds Pakistan comment)
By Mohammad Reza Rezai
HERAT, Afghanistan, July 31 (Reuters) - A bicycle bomb outside the Pakistani consulate in the western Afghan city of Herat wounded a police guard and two civilians on Thursday, a Reuters witness said.
Afghanistan has suffered scores of Taliban suicide and roadside bombs that have killed more than 200 civilians already this year, but Herat is relatively peaceful and most violence there analysts say is carried out by armed gangs and criminals.
The explosives were attached to a bicycle near a police kiosk outside the consulate, wounding a police guard and a woman and a child. There was no damage to the consulate.
Pakistan condemned the bombing.
"The government of Pakistan holds the government of Afghanistan responsible for the safety and security of its personnel in its embassy in Kabul and consulates in Herat, Kandahar, Jalalabad and Mazar-i-Sharif," Pakistan's Foreign Office said in a statement.
"We hope that the government of Afghanistan will take its responsibility seriously. The ambassador of Afghanistan is being summoned to the Foreign Office to convey the grave concerns of the government of Pakistan," it said.
A suicide bomb killed 58 people outside the Indian Embassy in the Afghan capital on July 7, an attack Afghan officials blamed on Pakistani agents.
Pakistan is unsettled by the growing influence of its rival India in Afghanistan, analysts say, but Islamabad has denied any interference in its western neighbour and says it only wants a peaceful and stable Afghanistan.
Pakistan had requested greater security at its diplomatic missions in Afghanistan, an embassy official in Kabul said.
Herat is one of the most peaceful and prosperous cities in Afghanistan with a new road to the nearby Iranian border boosting trade. An Iranian-funded railway to the border is also under construction. (Writing by Jon Hemming; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)
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