Afghanistan's consul general in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar was abducted and his driver killed in an ambush on the diplomat's car Monday, the Afghan consulate said.
"The driver was killed in the firing, consul general Abdul Khaliq Farahi has been abducted," Zahir Khan Babari, an official at the Afghan consulate, told AFP.
Gunmen opened fire on the car as it was taking the diplomat from the consulate in the city centre to his home in a plush suburb of the troubled city near the Afghan border, police officer Banaras Khan said.
“The driver was killed, it was an Afghan consulate car. I am on the spot, we are investigating," Khan told AFP by telephone.
The consul, Abdul Khaliq Farahi, was due to take over in coming days as the Afghan ambassador to Islamabad, officials said.
The incident is likely to heighten tensions between Islamabad and Kabul over Afghan allegations that Pakistan is failing to crack down on al-Qaeda and Taliban militants in its tribal border regions.
Meanwhile, suspected Taliban militants have kidnapped more than 150 civilian labourers who were travelling in three buses in southwestern Afghanistan, Afghan authorities said yesterday.
They were captured on Sunday in the southwestern province of Farah, they said.
"About 156 workers who were travelling in three buses were captured by Taliban and are still being held by them," an army colonel in Farah province, Farooq Na'emi, told AFP.
"They were working for a construction company which is contracted to build facilities for the ANA (Afghan National Army)," he said.
The provincial governor, Roh-Ul Ameen, confirmed the mass abduction.
"One hundred and fifty workers and three drivers have been taken hostage by Taliban since yesterday. They were driving in three buses to Herat," he said.
The men worked for an Afghan construction company building army barracks in Farah, he said. "We are trying through tribal elders to secure their release."
The group was captured in the Bala Buluk area, where Taliban have previously been active.
Other Afghan officials had said earlier that the group had been released Sunday evening.
The Taliban, who were in government between 1996 and 2001, have carried out several abductions as part of a campaign against the Afghan government and its international allies.
This one, if confirmed to be the work of the Taliban, would be the largest abduction by the al-Qaeda-linked militia.
Twenty-three South Korean hostages were kidnapped in the central province of Ghazni a year ago. Two were killed before the remainder were released after controversial talks between the Taliban and South Korean government.