(MENAFN- Asia Times) (From agencies)
Afghan security forces exchanged fire with gunmen barricaded in a house near the Pakistan consulate in the eastern city of Jalalabad on Wednesday after a suicide bomber blew himself up killing as many as six people and injuring11 officials said.
The blast comes ten days after a 25-hour gun and bomb siege took place near the Indian consulate in the Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif .
Witnesses said heavy gunfire and a series of explosions could be heard and residents and children from a nearby school had been evacuated.
Earlier Attaullah Khogyani a spokesman for the provincial governor said a suicide bomber had tried to join a queue of people seeking visas to Pakistan and blew himself up after being prevented from entering the building.
A security source told Afghanistan’s Tolo News that five policemen were killed and 11 people including three schoolchildren and a consulate staff member have been injured in the attack.
The policemen killed were guarding the consulate at the time.
Officials said three attackers are inside the consulate and a gun battle between security forces and attackers is ongoing.
Local Afghan officials said they were investigating the incident outside the consulate which is near the Indian and Iranian diplomatic mission. A hospital and schools are also situated in the area which is usually busy during morning rush hour as people queue for visas.
Police say area around Pakistan consulate in Nangarhar province has been sealed off after the suicide attack.
The nature of the blast could not be independently confirmed.
There have been several bomb blasts in Afghanistan over recent weeks at a time when efforts are under way to restart a peace process with the Taliban and ease diplomatic tension between Pakistan and India.
Delegates from Afghanistan Pakistan China and the United States met this week to try to resurrect efforts to end nearly 15 years of bloodshed in Afghanistan even as fighting with the Taliban intensifies.
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