ISLAMABAD, Jan 14: Pakistani diplomatic mission in Kabul was reopened on Monday with the flag-hoisting ceremony held at the embassy building recently handed over to Pakistan, Foreign Office spokesman said.

“Pakistan is resuming diplomatic relations with Afghanistan at the counsellor level,” Foreign Office spokesman Kamran Niaz told reporters at the daily briefing here on Monday.

Three Pakistani officials were present in Kabul who took over the charge of the embassy building and reopened the mission, he said.

The spokesman had no idea about the plans of the interim government of Kamal Karzai to open their mission in Islamabad.

Almost all the major regional as well as western countries, including Britain, the United States, France, Germany,

China, Russia and India, have already established their full-fledged diplomatic missions in Kabul.

Pakistani embassy in Kabul had been closed down in the third week of September, and since then Islamabad had no diplomatic presence in the Afghan capital.

Later on, the two buildings in which Pakistani mission was housed had been taken over by some armed groups.