Soviet Attache Shot to Death; Pakistani Held

A Soviet military attache was shot to death in his car today by a man who had been seeking to emigrate to the Soviet Union, Pakistani officials said.

Government officials said Col. F. Gorenkov, an assistant military attache at the Soviet Embassy, was killed after stopping his car to talk to a man.

The attacker was overpowered by passers-by and handed over to police, the officials said.

The officials identified the assailant only as Zafar. They said he was from Lahore, in eastern Pakistan, and had been seeking to emigrate to the Soviet Union for some time.

He recently went to Bangladesh in an attempt to get a visa to go to the Soviet Union, the officials said.

They said that he appeared to be mentally disturbed and that he was being questioned by senior police and intelligence officials.

According to the Pakistani News Agency, the assailant flagged down the Soviet attache’s car near the Soviet Embassy and the diplomat stopped to talk to him. Zafar apparently knew the diplomat, the agency said.

The Soviet diplomat then was shot at point-blank range, the report said.

The Soviet Embassy refused to comment on the attack.

An Iraqi diplomat was killed in Karachi on Sunday when his car was bombed. The Iraqi Embassy accused Iran of being behind the attack, but the Iranian Embassy denied involvement. Iran and Iraq have been at war since 1980.