The bomber, driving a Toyota 4Runner, breached the first of the three-tier security ring around the embassy.
In a near rerun of the massive July 2008 attack, a suicide bomber blew up an explosive-laden car near the Indian embassy building in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Thursday, killing 17 Afghans and injuring 80.
The bomber, driving a Toyota 4Runner, breached the first of the three-tier security ring around the embassy. Realising that he could not go past the second tier, he reversed and hit the boundary wall of the compound. Three ITBP personnel guarding the wall received minor shrapnel injuries.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack. This claim, however, has not been verified by the Afghan authorities. The Al Jazeera channel quoting the Taliban website has identified the suicide bomber as Khalid.
“The impact of the explosion was five times more powerful than the one last year,” the deputy speaker of the Afghan parliament told a wire service. Some of the windows and doors of the embassy came unhinged and glass panes were shattered, Indian ambassador Jayant Prasad told reporters in Kabul.
Foreign secretary Nirupama Rao made it clear that the Indian mission had been targetted, and not the interior ministry next to the embassy. “It could be any of the terrorist groups coming from the tribal areas of Pakistan; most of the groups are now operating under different guises,’’ a senior official said on condition of anonymity. The Haqqani network responsible for last year’s blast could well be involved, but it may be any of the other groups, sources said.
They speculate that whoever is involved has the backing of elements within Pakistan. The military and the civilian government in Pakistan want to scuttle India’s growing influence in Afghanistan. Some sections in the US also want India to keep a low profile. India, however, is no mood to give up the strategic advantage it has gained by having consulates in four places and working at reconstruction of the war ravaged nation.
“It is time for India to wake up and think of what it needs to do in Afghanistan,’’ says analyst Srinath Raghavan amid fears that Washington, under Pakistan’s influence, is coming to regarding the Indian presence in Afghanistan as an irritant to the establishment in Islamabad. “Forces against India are ranged together in Afghanistan and New Delhi needs to have a clear idea what is the way ahead,” Raghavan adds.
Minister of state for external affairs Shashi Tharoor echoed the government line in his Twitter post. “India will not be intimidated by these criminal killers. We will take all steps necessary to protect Indian lives and installations in Afghanistan,” he said.
Meanwhile, the US and the UK have condemned the attack stating it as “deeply troubling” and “awful”. Pakistan has said that the blast was designed to sabotage Islamabad-New Delhi ties.
With agency inputs
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