The official Twitter account of the Pakistani consulate in the Afghan city of Kandahar was “hacked”, Consul General Tariq Ali said on Friday, after the account posted tweets about the temporary closure of the mission.

Earlier in the day, journalist Anas Mallick tweeted: “Pakistan to close its consulate in Kandahar for two days as a mark of protest while strongly urging Taliban government to act against TTP (Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan) and not giving them safe havens, reads tweets from the consulate’s account — also states that this can be the first step to severing diplomatic ties.”

However, the consul general quickly clarified that the account was hacked.

“Dear all! Official account of the Consulate General of Pakistan Kandahar was hacked a while ago which was immediately recovered. Unsolicited tweets have been deleted. The Consulate General offers sincere apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused. The matter is being reported to Twitter,” the consul general said in a statement.

It is noteworthy that the outlawed TTP had asked its combatants on Monday to carry out attacks across the country because of alleged “unabated” operations by security forces against militants in the southern districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Pakistan has consistently asked Afghanistan to take action against TTP militants on its side of the border.

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Attack on Hekmatyar Office

In another development today, armed men failed to reach Hizb-i-Islami Afghanistan chief and former Afghan premier Gulbuddin Hekmatyar when they fired at his guards in Kabul, an official of the group, Ghairat Baheer, told Dawn.com.

Hekmatyar routinely delivers Friday sermons at his party central office in the Afghan capital and three gunmen tried to reach the mosque, Baheer said. He said two guards of Hekmatyar were injured.

“The Hizb-e-Islami guards killed two attackers and one has gone missing,” he said.

“Hekmatyar and other party leaders are safe,” he said.

It is not clear who was involved in the attack.

Hekmatyar is among the few senior Afghan leaders who stayed in Kabul after the Taliban took control of the capital city in August last year.

The Hizb-e-Islami chief backed the Taliban government, however, sometimes he criticises the Taliban policies in his Friday sermons.