Bomb rocks India embassy in Kabul

SwordFish_13

Active member
Hi,

A suicide bomber has rammed a car full of explosives into the gates of the Indian embassy in the Afghan capital, killing 41 people and injuring 141.

Five embassy personnel were killed - India's defence attache, a senior diplomat and two security guards - as well as an Afghan man.

Five Afghans died at Indonesia's embassy nearby.

No-one has admitted being behind the attack, the deadliest in Kabul since the Taleban overthrow in 2001.

Afghanistan has seen a sharp increase in violence, particularly in the south and east - and Taleban militants recently vowed to step up their attacks in the capital.

But the latest blast - in what was supposed to be a secure area of Kabul - will greatly concern Afghan government officials, says the BBC's Martin Patience in Kabul.


Map

Eyewitness: Kabul bombing

Afghan President Hamid Karzai said the attackers wanted to rupture good relations between Afghanistan and India.

India also condemned the "cowardly terrorists' attack", but vowed it would not be deterred from fulfilling its commitment to the government and people of Afghanistan.

India has close ties with Afghanistan and is involved in aid and reconstruction work, including the building of Afghanistan's new parliament.

The US condemned the "needless act of violence", as did the European Union, which described it as a "terrorist attack targeting innocent civilians".

The United Nations' envoy to Afghanistan, Kai Eide, said that "in no culture, no country, and no religion is there any excuse or justification for such acts".

'Very afraid'

The bomb exploded as people were queuing for visas at the embassy.

"We were standing in a line to get visas, the police told us to stand on one side, the women were in another line, then suddenly I heard a huge bang and I sat down. I was very afraid," Khan Zaman said.

Ali Hassan Fahimi said shrapnel had landed in his office, which is close to the site of the blast.

"It was so strong... and our staff were shocked," he said.


RECENT ATTACKS IN KABUL
An injured man at a Kabul hospital

April 2008: Gun attack on parade attended by President Karzai
March 2008: Six people die in car bomb attack on coalition convoy
Jan 2008: Six people killed in Taleban attack on Serena hotel
Dec 2007: At least 13 people killed in a suicide car bombing
Sept 2007: Suicide bomb attack on bus kills 30 Afghan soldiers
June 2007: Bomb attack on Afghan police bus kills up to 35 people

In pictures: Afghan bomb attack
India - Afghanistan's influential ally

A spokesman for the Afghan defence ministry, Gen Zaher Azimi, told the BBC the attack was "the deadliest since the fall of Taleban" in Kabul.

Another Afghan government spokesman, Zamari Bashari, told the BBC he thought the embassy had been attacked because of India's involvement in the reconstruction of Afghanistan.

He said that the terrorist enemies of Afghanistan wanted such work to stop.

Afghan Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta visited the Indian embassy shortly after the attack, his spokesman Sultan Ahmed Baheen said.

"India and Afghanistan have a deep relationship between each other. Such attacks of the enemy will not harm our relations," Mr Spanta told the personnel at the embassy, the spokesman said.

And the Indian government spokesman said: "Such acts of terror will not deter us from fulfilling our commitments to the government and people of Afghanistan."

Afghanistan's interior ministry said it believed the attack was carried out "in coordination and consultation with an active intelligence service in the region".

It did not specify which intelligence service it suspected of involvement. But in the past, Afghanistan has accused Pakistani agents of being behind a number of attacks on its soil.

In a statement, Pakistan's foreign minister said his country "condemns terrorism in all its forms and manifestations".

Source : BBC News
 
ISI hand suspected in Kabul embassy blast:

Hi,

Source



NEW DELHI: The involvement of Pakistan's intelligence agency ISI is suspected in the terror strike at the Indian embassy in Kabul, whose main targets appear to have been the two senior officials, including the Defence Attache killed in the attack. ( Watch )

An explosive-laden car rammed into the Indian embassy gate in the Shahr-i-Naw area as two cars carrying Brigadier Ravi Dutt Mehta and Counsellor V Venkateswara Rao were entering the embassy compound, official sources said here.

Brig Mehta was just beginning his tenure in Kabul having been posted to the city nearly five months back on February 15, 2008. He was an air defence artillery officer who was commissioned into the armed forces in June 1976.

Two ITBP personnel Ajai Pathania and Roop Singh were also among the 41 people killed in the strike in which 141 were injured.

Rao's body was flung over the roof by the impact of the explosion that blew off the embassy's gates and outer structure and damaged buildings inside the compound. Two Indian embassy vehicles were also damaged, an official said, adding over 140 people were injured in the blast.

Wounded people lay on the road wailing for help amid blood and severed limbs after the blast as a cloud of dust and smoke billowed from the site.

Mehta had recently taken his wife Sunita and two children -- Flight Lieutenant Udit Mehta, M S Bhawiya Mehta -- to Kabul to spend their summer vacation.

India said it is rushing a high-level team, headed by Nalin Surie, Secretary (West) to Kabul to assess the "emergency" situation there.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai had blamed the "enemies" of the strong friendship between Afghanistan and India for the attack but did not name any person or group.

RIP :(
 
Sorry to hear about this, let's hope the ones responsibe get caught and have to stand trial for it.

Blaming the ISI is maybe jumping conclusions so early, one should hold all perspectives open at this moment.
 
This what we call real bad in my part of the world and I offer my sympathies for your losses.

Having recently returned from a tour in Afghanistan, I can tell you that Pakistan is no real friend of Afghanistan and is seen as the enemy by many Afghans.

Pakistan is always at odds with India and regards ANY interest or activities in Afghanistan by India as interfering in their sphere of influence. Why the Pakistanis would then treat Afghanistan the way they do by creating and then harboring the Taliban, is beyond me. :-(
 
This what we call real bad in my part of the world and I offer my sympathies for your losses.

Having recently returned from a tour in Afghanistan, I can tell you that Pakistan is no real friend of Afghanistan and is seen as the enemy by many Afghans.

Pakistan is always at odds with India and regards ANY interest or activities in Afghanistan by India as interfering in their sphere of influence. Why the Pakistanis would then treat Afghanistan the way they do by creating and then harboring the Taliban, is beyond me. :-(

Bomb Rocks India's Kabul Embassy, Did we just hit back?

You would get a fair Idea after reading the Comment posted on the above link.
 
Pakistan spies 'aided Kabul bomb'

Hi,

Elements in Pakistan's ISI intelligence agency helped plan last month's deadly suicide attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul, US officials have alleged.

The accusation was made in briefings to the New York Times and the Washington Post by US government officials.

The allegation that Pakistani spies helped plan the attack is apparently based on intercepted communications.

Pakistan's government called the report "total rubbish", saying there was no proof for the allegations.


There was a sense that there was finally direct proof
US state department official

Pakistan spy agency accused by US
Pakistan PM meets a sceptical US

"We reject it. No one has given any evidence to us. It's just an allegation," foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Sadiq told Reuters news agency.

"There's no proof for this."

More than 50 people were killed in the blast, including two senior Indian diplomats. It was the bloodiest in the Afghan capital since the Taleban were driven from power in 2001.

The Indian and Afghan governments have also accused the ISI of involvement in the suicide attack.

'Suspicions'

BBC security correspondent Rob Watson says few details have been given about the intercepts.


This is a baseless allegation that the New York Times keeps on recycling using anonymous sources
Pakistan foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Sadiq

But he says US officials allege that they clearly point to Pakistani help with the logistics and planning of the bombing.

One unnamed state department official quoted by the New York Times described the intercepted communications as "direct proof" of ISI involvement.

"It confirmed some suspicions that I think were widely held," the official, who was described as having knowledge of Afghanistan issues, was quoted as saying.

"It was sort of this 'aha' moment. There was a sense that there was finally direct proof," the official said.

Our correspondent says US intelligence believes the bombing itself was carried out by fighters loyal to Jalaludin Haqqani - an Afghan militant accused of having close links to both al-Qaeda and the Taleban and elements within the ISI.

According to a report in the New York Times earlier this week, a senior CIA official travelled to Pakistan last month to confront Islamabad over links between the ISI and Islamic extremists both in Pakistan's tribal areas and over the border in Afghanistan.

The Pakistani government consistently denies such links, although it has acknowledged that the US raised serious concerns about the issue during this week's visit to Washington by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani.

Although most Western intelligence sources agree there are links between elements of the ISI and extremists connected to the Taleban and al-Qaeda, there are marked disagreements as to the extent and nature of those links, our correspondent says.

Some see them as an exception to the generally helpful approach of the Pakistanis, while others believe the ISI is badly compromised and its links to the militants more than a question of a few rogue agents.


Source: BBC News

-=SF_13=-
 
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