Iranian diplomat kidnapped in volatile Pakistan city

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PESHAWAR, Nov 13 (Reuters): Gunmen kidnapped an Iranian diplomat in northwestern Pakistan's Peshawar Thursday, officials said, soon after a US aid worker was killed in a city hit hard by an Islamist insurgency spreading from Afghanistan. The diplomat's driver was killed in the attack.
Suspicion for the attack, a day after the US aid worker was killed, will inevitably fall on the Taliban and affiliated Sunni Muslim militant groups such as al Qaeda, who hate Shi'ite Muslims and predominantly Shi'ite Iran almost as much as the West.
Criminal gangs using religion as a cover are also active in the area. Spiralling violence has raised fears that nuclear-armed Pakistan could slide into chaos unless the 7-month-old civilian government and army can throttle the militant threat.
Pakistan's support is seen as vital to the defeat of al Qaeda globally and the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Peshawar is the last city on the road to the Khyber Pass, the main land route to Afghanistan, and has borne the brunt of an Islamist insurgency spreading from neighbouring tribal lands.
The diplomat was on his way to the consulate from his home when his car was ambushed in Hayatabad, a neighborhood bordering the Khyber tribal region. Afghanistan's ambassador-designate to Pakistan was kidnapped from the same place on September 22.
The Iranian consulate in Peshawar confirmed that commercial attache Heshmatollah Atharzadeh had been kidnapped.
"On hearing guns shots, I rushed out of my home and saw the body of the guard lying there," Abid Hussain, a neighbour of the diplomat, told Reuters. "By that time Atharzadeh had been taken away."
Bakht Munir, a senior police official, said witnesses had told police the guard was shot trying to resist the kidnappers as they snatched Atharzadeh.
Iran's official IRNA news agency quoted the Iranian ambassador to Pakistan, Mashollah Shakeri, as saying that under diplomatic conventions, "Islamabad is responsible for the safety of Iranian diplomats".
US aid worker Steve Vance and his driver were killed outside Vance's Peshawar home, where he lived with his wife and five children, Wednesday.