A police officer is killed in an attack on a convoy of foreign diplomats in Pakistan

PESHAWAR, Pakistan – A roadside bomb hit a convoy of foreign diplomats visiting northwest Pakistan on Sunday, killing a member of their security detail, police said.

Zahidullah Khan, a police officer in the Swat district, told NBC News that the diplomats were on their way to a tourist resort “when a police car escorting their convoy was hit by an improvised explosive device.”

One police officer died at the scene and three others were injured, he said, adding that the diplomats visited the Swat Valley at the invitation of the local chamber of commerce.

Mohammad Ali Gandapur, deputy inspector general of police in the Swat region, said all foreign ambassadors were safe and the attackers were targeting a police vehicle.

According to police, the convoy's passengers also included ambassadors from Indonesia, Portugal, Kazakhstan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Turkmenistan, Vietnam, Iran, Russia and Tajikistan.

Police made security arrangements for the foreign ambassadors and they were immediately rescued and taken towards the Pakistani capital Islamabad, Khan said.

The Pakistani Foreign Ministry expressed its condolences to the families of the victims and said in a statement that “all members of the diplomatic corps have returned safely to Islamabad.”

Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari also condemned the attack. “Terrorist elements are not only enemies of the country and the nation, but of humanity itself,” he said in a statement from his office.

No one took responsibility for the attack.

Police and Pakistani army blocked roads and imposed a curfew in the attack area while conducting a search operation.

Pakistani counter-terror forces maintain a heavy presence in the Swat Valley, which has long been a hotbed of Islamist militant insurgency. The militants have stepped up their attacks since late 2022 after breaking a ceasefire with the government.

In 2012, Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai was shot and seriously injured by militant Islamists in the valley.