Attempt to terrorise our Embassy, a very serious development: SM Krishna

External affairs minister SM Krishna today described the incident of a suspicious packet being sent to India’s Ambassador in Italy Arif Shahid Khan recently, as “a very serious development”.

Talking to media on his arrival from Bangalore at the Indira Gandhi International airport here, Krishna said: “Well, we will have to await for the report from our Embassy. It has to be said that if the attempt is to terrorise our Ambassador, our Embassy staff, then it’s a very serious development.”

The minister’s reaction came almost a day after media quoted the Indian embassy and the Indian Ambassador to Italy as saying that the packet had been received at the Embassy on January 20.

The envelope was addressed to the Embassy of India in Italy. It contained two fuse wires.

“The police was immediately informed and a report was filed,” Arif Shahid Khan had told media.  

Indian embassy in Italy received an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) in the form of a postage packet recently, which led to stepping up of security at the mission.

The incident holds more significance from security perspective, as the packet had the sender's name as LTTE (Liberation Tigers for Tamil Eelam) from Italy.

Meanwhile, the security at the Embassy has been stepped up following the incident.