Afghan consul abducted in Pakistan

Afghan consul general Abdul Khaliq Farahi has been kidnapped by unidentified gunmen in the northwestern city of Peshawar in Pakistan.

Unidentified gunmen fired at the vehicle carrying Farahi, killing his driver in the Hayatabad area of Peshawar, the capital of the North-West Frontier Province and the administrative centre for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesman Sultan Baheen confirmed the incident, but gave no further details. He said Farahi had recently been asked to become Afghanistan's new ambassador to Pakistan but had refused the post.

The incident adds to the crisis gripping Pakistan, two days after a suicide truck bomber devastated the Marriott Hotel in the capital, killing at least 70 people.

Suspicion has fallen on Taliban and al-Qaida militants nested in the northwest and who have claimed responsibility for a spate of recent suicide attacks.

This comes a day after militants, suspected to be members of the Taliban, abducted 100 civilian construction workers from a military base in Afghanistan's Farah province, taking them to a secret location.

Mohammad Younes Rasouli, the deputy governor of Farah, says the workers were ordinary people recruited from the surrounding area to do construction work at the base.