Shots were fired at Pakistan's Embassy in Kabul on Friday, in what Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif described as an "assassination attempt" on the mission's head. "I demand immediate investigation & action against perpetrators of this heinous act," Sharif tweeted.

A Kabul police spokesman said one suspect had been arrested and two light weapons were seized after security forces swept a nearby building "and prevented the continuation of gunfire."

Although Pakistan does not officially recognize the Taliban government in Afghanistan, it kept its Embassy open even after the Taliban took over in August last year, and it maintains a full diplomatic mission.

An embassy official told AFP a lone attacker "came behind the cover of houses and started firing."

"The ambassador and all the other staff are safe, but we are not going outside of the embassy building as a precaution," he said.

A spokesman for Afghanistan's Foreign Ministry said they strongly condemned the "failed attack".

In a similar context, two suicide bombers disguised as burqa-clad women were killed Friday while attempting to storm the Kabul headquarters of an Afghan political party, its veteran leader said.

"We have one person martyred and two wounded in this incident," Gulbuddin Hekmatyar said on Barya TV, a local channel run by his Hizb-e-Islami party.

"Both of the mercenary suicide attackers were killed before they reached their target."