ISLAMABAD, Jan 23: A senior Kazakh diplomat, who was shot in the head on Jan 19, died at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) on Friday, police and hospital authorities said.

Meanwhile, police claimed to have arrested two Chinese nationals for their involvement in the murder of the diplomat, Sapargali Aubakirov, and recovered a pistol, believed to be the weapon of offence, and a cell phone of the deceased from their possession. Hunt is on to arrest the two other accomplices, one of whom is settled in Kazakhstan.

Mr Aubakirov, aged 45-50, was deputy chief of the mission at the Kazakh embassy and was living alone in F-6/4. His official car was also found stolen from his house. According to police reports, the diplomat was shot in the head from close range. His body was flown to Kazakhstan by a special plane on Friday afternoon.

Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Sultan Azam Temuri told Dawn that the arrest of the two accused, one of whom had masterminded the crime, came about after police traced the missing mobile phone of the diplomat.

He said the two accused, identified as Muhammad Hassan and Muhammad Ibrahim, had made at least six phone calls to Mr Aubakirov before 10 pm on Jan 19 when he was attending a dinner at another diplomat's residence. Later, they went to the diplomat's house along with two other persons one of whom was a Kazakh.

The SSP said Mr Hassan and Mr Ibrahim dropped the two persons at the diplomat's residence and went to F-10 where they waited for their two accomplices.

Mr Temuri said apparently the motive seemed to snatch the car, which had also been traced in NWFP, however, it was yet to be recovered. He said after shooting the diplomat in the head, the two persons, Mr Mehmood and Mr Murad, reached F-10 in the diplomat's car where Mr Hassan and Mr Ibrahim were waiting for them.

He said Mr Hassan, who ran a Chinese restaurant in Rawalpindi and Mr Ibrahim, who lived in F-7/4, came back to their homes, while the two other persons drove away the diplomat's car. The SSP further said according to police record, the diplomat's car had been driven out of Islamabad sometime before midnight the same day.