Envoy has narrow escape as mine attack kills seven in Colombo

PAKISTAN’S top envoy has escaped a mine blast which killed seven people as Tamil Tiger rebels accused Sri Lanka of bombing an orphanage and killing 61 amid ferocious battles elsewhere.

The unprecedented Claymore mine attack on a diplomat in Colombo came as troops and Tigers were locked in fierce face-to-face combat in the island’s northern peninsula of Jaffna.

Ambassador Bashir Wali Mohmand, a retired Pakistan intelligence officer, narrowly escaped although his car took shrapnel from the mine mounted on a parked three-wheeler taxi, police said.