New Delhi
8 October 2009
A Taliban suicide bomber blew up an explosives-laden car outside the Indian
Embassy in Kabul on Thursday, killing 17 people and injuring over 80 others. There
were no Indian casualties. One Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) personnel suffered
slight injuries, Indian Ambassador to Afghanistan Jayant Prasad told this newspaper.
The blast took place at about 8.30 am (9.30 am IST). The suicide car bomber drove up
near a side entrance of the embassy and exploded himself. Doors and windows of the
chancery building were blown off, and a watch tower inside the Indian Embassy
compound was damaged.
Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack and identified the bomber as Khalid, Al
Jazeera TV channel said. A Taliban spokesman said that the Indian Embassy was the
intended target.
Mr Prasad said that the Afghan security agencies were following certain technical leads
but it was evident that the attack was carried out by the enemies of the growing
friendship between the peoples of India and Afghanistan.
"We have noted the initial reaction of the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which said
that the origins of the attack was from outside Afghanistan," Mr Prasad said.
[An Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesman said that the "brutal attack" was carried out by
"enemies" of Indo-Afghan ties and their "bases are outside of Afghanistan".]
In New Delhi, Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao said that "the blast was directed at the
Indian Embassy because the suicide bomber came
up to the outside perimeter wall of the embassy with a car loaded with explosives,
obviously with the aim of targeting the embassy."
She said that the intensity of the blast was "more or less the same" as the 7 July 2008
suicide car bomb attack on the Indian Embassy in Kabul in which about 60 people
including four Indians -- Indian Foreign Service officer Vadapalli Venkateswara Rao,
defence attache Brigadier Ravi Dutt Mehta, and two ITBP jawans Constable Ajay
Pathania and Constable Roop Singh -- were killed.
After the 2008 attack, extra and very stringent measures such as hesco barrier and
concrete wall was erected around the Indian Embassy. Those security measures
prevented what could have been a bigger tragedy, Ms Rao added.
Soon after the attack, the security of the Indian Embassy and the personnel was
reviewed at a meeting at the Afghan Interior Ministry in which Mr Prasad and officials
from the Afghan Foreign Ministry were present. Afghan Foreign Minister Dr Rangin
Dadfar Spanta and Afghan Interior Minister Mohammad Hanif Atmar visited the Indian
Embassy in the evening. Dr Spanta said on the occasion that the India - Afghanistan
friendship will not be affected by such terrorist attacks.
The explosion, the fifth suicide strike in Kabul in two months, was heard in a large area.
A Ria Novosti report from Kabul said that the blast was strong enough to be felt in the
Russian Embassy compound on the other side of the Afghan capital.
Several vehicles and shops in the vicinity of the Indian Embassy and the Afghan Interior
Ministry, located across the road, were totally destroyed. Windows of shops were
shattered, and walls of buildings badly damaged in the blast.
Two sport utility vehicles (SUVs) nearby were badly damaged, according to an
Associated Press reporter at the scene. One of them had United Nations markings on its
side. UN Spokesman Dan McNorton confirmed that two UN vehicles were near the blast
and one was damaged.
Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao said that India will take "whatever measures needed to
safeguard security of our personnel and our interests in Afghanistan" but Home
Secretary GK Pillai told reporters later in the day that there were no plans to send
additional security forces to Afghanistan.
"We have enough forces there. There is no plan to send additional forces," Mr Pillai
said. He was responding to a query whether the Government has any plan to reinforce
the existing force of the ITBP following the latest attack.
Nearly 120 ITBP personnel guard diplomatic missions in Afghanistan while another 300
personnel protect different projects being undertaken
by Indian organisations and companies in the war-ravaged country.
Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai joined the United States, the United Kingdom and
the European Union in condemning the attack.
Mr Karzai said: "This heinous act of terror was an obvious attack on civilians. The
perpetrators of this attack and those who planned it are vicious terrorists who kill
innocent people for their malicious goals[.]"
US Ambassador to India Timothy Roemer said that the attack was deeply troubling. "Our
heart goes out to India, to the victims of terrorism and our prayers are with the people of
India today[.] I want to extend both to the Foreign Secretary and to the people of India the
United States of America's support to India, its concern about this bombing which is
deeply troubling and as we find out more details we will have more to say," he said after
meeting Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao in the morning.
British Foreign Minister David Miliband spoke to Minister of External Affairs SM Krishna.
"I condemn unreservedly the awful terrorist attack which took place in Kabul," Mr
Miliband said. British High Commissioner to India Richard Stagg, in turn, said in a
statement: "Our thoughts and condolences are with the injured and with the families of
those killed."
In a statement, the head of the European Commission delegation to Afghanistan
Hansjorg Kretschmer said that the attack will not be a deterrent for Europe from being a
key actor in the security sector and justice reform process.
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