An SNP councillor was suspended yesterday after pictures were published of him apparently firing a Kalashnikov.

Jahingir Hanif was caught on video posing with the assault rifle at what is described as a "military-style" camp in his native Pakistan in 2005.

The 46-year-old was also reported to have helped five of his children, including his then-five-year-old daughter, to use the weapon.

His party, which has taken a tough line on gun crime, yesterday said his actions had been "very foolish" but added there was no evidence that he was involved in "anything untoward".

Opposition parties latched on to the images, which were published yesterday in the Evening Times, The Herald's sister paper, and demanded Mr Hanif's resignation from Glasgow City Council.

An SNP spokeswoman said: "Councillor Hanif is in Pakistan, and has not had the opportunity to put his side of the story. On the face of it he has not broken the law, and there is no suggestion of any involvement in anything untoward. Nevertheless, this was very foolish and inappropriate conduct. He is well aware of the SNP's strong views against firearms, particularly involving children.

"Councillor Hanif has been suspended from the party, and therefore the council group, pending a disciplinary hearing where he will have the opportunity to explain himself and this incident from 2005. Given this action, it would be inappropriate to comment further."

Mr Hanif, a successful businessman, owns several properties for rent in the Glasgow area, one of which is in a notorious building in Govanhill dubbed "ground zero". He has represented the Southside Central ward for the SNP since May last year.

His 17-year-old daughter Noor told the Evening Times she had also fired the Kalashnikov at the camp but said she "wasn't happy about it". The family, she said, had been taken to the mountains in a van with blacked-out windows.

The councillor lives above his office in Cathcart after a reportedly bitter split from his wife of 18 years, Naushin, shortly after the Kalashnikov video was filmed in late 2005.

Mr Hanif is listed as an aide to Glasgow list MSP Bill Kidd and is a member of the Scottish Parliament's cross-party parliamentary group on Palestine. Holyrood officials were last night unable to say if Mr Hanif had security clearance to enter the building.

The video is understood to have been shot during a day-trip to Peshawar - capital of the lawless North West Frontier of Pakistan, now widely regarded as being one of the most violent places in the world. In 2005, however, the region was still on the trail of more adventurous foreign backpackers and Pakistani visitors. Many tourists sought out one of the region's main attractions, its gunsmiths and gun markets. Sellers, for a small fee, are traditionally happy to let would-be purchasers or the idly curious to try out their wares.

There are believed to be hundreds of thousands of hand-crafted home-made AK-47s in the region, almost all reverse engineered from the assault rifles produced for Warsaw Pact armies half a century ago.

Last night a spokesman for the Labour Party said Mr Hanif's video would be hugely embarrassing for the SNP and its deputy leader, Nicola Sturgeon, whose Govan constituency includes much of Mr Hanif's ward.

The spokesman said: "This is a massive error of judgment . It makes a mockery of the SNP's claim to be tough on crime when one of their own elected officials is happy to handle a deadly assault weapon."

Bill Aitken MSP, the Tory's justice spokesman, said: "At a time when every right thinking politician is concerned about the levels of violence and gun crime this man is training his children in how to use a deadly assault rifle. Why was he doing this? This sends out the worst possible message and renders councillor Hanif quite unsuitable to hold elected public office.

"Mr Salmond needs to take decisive action or his own credibility will be very much under question."