Karachi: At least two persons were injured when gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire on a vehicle of Japanese consulate in Karachi on Thursday, underscoring the poor security situation of the country.
The attack may have been an attempted robbery because the three Pakistanis in the car had stopped by a bank to get cash before they were ambushed, police official Javed Akbar Riaz said.
The two wounded men were in stable condition.
Crime has long been a problem in Karachi, a sprawling port city of more than 16 million with a history of political, ethnic and religious tensions. Criminals appear to have grown more active over the past decade as Pakistan's government has tried to curb the growth of the Taliban, and the Islamist militants are believed to benefit from their links to crime syndicates.
Kazuhiro Kawase, a spokesman at Japan's Foreign Ministry in Tokyo, confirmed the shooting and said no Japanese diplomatic officials were in the car. Police in Karachi said the vehicle's licence plates indicated it belonged to the Japanese consulate.
"We are still confirming what sort of damage there was to the vehicle or what sort of injuries people inside might have sustained." Kawase said.
Japan and Pakistan have good relations, and Tokyo has been generous in providing aid to the Muslim-majority nation.
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