Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar said on Sunday that Pakistan has filed a complaint with the German government following yesterday’s attack on the Pakistani consulate in Frankfurt by “extremist groups.” Dar posted on Twitter that he urged the German government to fulfil its responsibilities under the Vienna Convention and ensure the safety of Pakistan’s diplomatic missions and personnel.
A group of more than 400 people protested in front of the consulate on Saturday, carrying the flag of pre-Taliban Afghanistan, according to DW. The protest aimed to draw attention to dissatisfaction with Pakistan’s intelligence and military agencies, which organizers say are assassinating political opponents and dissidents.
A Pakistani official also acknowledged to Voice of America that the attack was a “major security lapse on the part of Germany.” German authorities, they said, had failed to inform consulate staff about the upcoming protests and had not stepped up security at the diplomatic compound, as per “standard operating procedure.”
The Pakistani embassy in Berlin condemned the “reprehensible act of vandalism” at X (formerly Twitter) and reiterated Germany’s obligations under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. The embassy said it was in contact with local authorities to ensure that such acts of vandalism do not happen again and that the perpetrators are held accountable.
Article 27(1)(a) of the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations provides that “The receiving State shall respect and protect, even in the event of an armed conflict, the consular premises, the property of the consular post and the consular archives.”
The rights and protections of diplomatic missions are also enshrined in Article 22(2) of the 1961 Geneva Convention on Diplomatic Relations, which provides ambassadors the freedom to carry out their duties without fear of interference or reprisals from the host state.
The incident has further exacerbated already tense relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan, as Pakistan still hosts millions of Afghan refugees who have fled the turmoil in their homeland. More than three million Afghan refugees currently live in Pakistan, and the country is nascent in a deportation campaign to expel those staying there without proper documentation. But earlier this month, Islamabad extended the stay of officially registered Afghan refugees by one year.
