Gunmen kidnapped Afghanistan's top diplomat in Pakistan yesterday after shooting dead his driver in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar, police said.

Abdul Khaliq Farahi is Afghanistan's ambassador designate to Pakistan, but is still serving as consul-general in Peshawar, a post he has held since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.

"The consul-general was traveling with his driver when some masked gunmen intercepted his vehicle and took him away after killing his driver," said Noor Mohammad Takal, second secretary at the Afghan consulate in Peshawar.