ISLAMABAD – A team of police raided the embassy of North Korea in federal capital after receiving a tipoff that a heft hoard of liquor has been stashed inside the mission’s office.
Reports said that the raid was carried out earlier this week after a Senior Superintendent of Police directed an investigation team to probe the tip-off about presence of liquor at the embassy.
It is yet to confirm whether police officials have recorded liquor bottles from the office of the diplomatic mission.
The matter came into light after the embassy wrote to the Inspector General of Islamabad Police, protesting the raid as violation of the Vienna Convention.
The North Korean embassy, in the letter, said that seven police personnel broke into the premises on March 7.
“The mission staff reminded them that the premises of the embassy are sovereign territory of DPRK and asked them to immediately stop this brutal act,” it said. “But the police ignored the request, searched the storerooms at the backyard on the pretext of seizing some items and threatened the staff with guns,” Dawn quoted the letter as saying.
It alleged police team of damaging the doors of the embassy, adding that “some external force” must have been behind the raid.
“The Embassy of the DPRK expresses its serious regrets on this incident and requests Ministry of Foreign Affairs and security organisations to undertake a thorough investigation against those involved and take measures to prevent recurrence of such incidents.”
Back in 2017, a burglary at the residence of the North Korean ambassador in Islamabad raised suspicions about involvement of the foreign diplomat in illegal trading of alcohol.
Reports at that time revealed that the burglars had taken away thousands of bottles of whisky, beer and wine from his Islamabad residence.
