U.S. Embassy Officer in Pakistan Is Charged With Obstruction

ISLAMABAD — Police in Pakistan have charged a U.S. Embassy security officer with seeking to obstruct an investigation into a car accident involving an embassy vehicle, police officials said Monday, adding to diplomatic tensions days after a U.S. military attaché was barred from leaving the country over a separate collision.

The arrest was made after a U.S. diplomat’s Toyota hit and injured two people on a motorcycle in Islamabad on Sunday evening, police said. The injured people were hospitalized, and the diplomat, identified as Second Secretary Chad Rex Ausburn, was briefly detained before being released after the Foreign Ministry confirmed his diplomatic credentials.

But police said that Taimur Iqbal Pirzada, a security adviser for the U.S. Embassy, sought to obstruct an investigation of the accident and to stop officers from taking the diplomat and his vehicle to a police station. Pirzada was charged with obstruction and with using assault or criminal force to deter a public servant from carrying out duties. He was released on bail Monday after appearing in court.

Islamabad police also registered a case of reckless driving against the motorcycle driver, Nazakat Aslam, on Monday.

A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad was not available for comment.

A State Department spokesman, Nolen Johnson, said the issue of the involvement of the diplomat in the accident had been resolved. “We are aware of a motor vehicle accident yesterday involving a U.S. Embassy diplomat,” Johnson said in an email. “The issue of his involvement has now been resolved. We have been in close contact with Government of Pakistan officials on this matter.”

U.S. officials did not comment on the embassy’s security adviser’s arrest and release on bail.

The accident over the weekend follows an episode this month that drew attention on social media as well as street protests. Pakistani officials say the U.S. Embassy’s military attaché, Col. Joseph E. Hall, ran through a red light in an upscale Islamabad neighborhood April 7, crashing into a motorcycle and killing a passenger. As a result, Hall has been barred from leaving Pakistan, and officials have demanded that the United States waive his diplomatic immunity so that he can face a criminal trial.

U.S. officials have refused.

Alice Wells, a senior State Department official, visited Islamabad to discuss the case with senior Pakistani officials, but the diplomatic tussle remains unresolved and ties between the two countries appear increasingly frayed. Even if the driver of the motorcycle in the accident Sunday evening is found to have been at fault, the second inquiry could complicate that diplomatic crisis.

In 2011, a CIA security officer, Raymond A. Davis, shot and killed two armed men in the eastern city of Lahore, causing a countrywide outrage. Davis was freed after the families of the victims received financial compensation.