Richard Holbrooke says Kabul attack not targeted at Indian facility

Amidst indications emerging of Pakistan-based LeT's involvement in the attack on Indians in Kabul, the top US envoy for the region today cautioned against jumping to conclusions, saying Indian facility was not the target.

"In regard to this attack, I don't accept the fact that this was an attack on an Indian facility like the (Indian) embassy. They were foreigners, non-Indian foreigners hurt. It was a soft target. Let's not jump to conclusions," special US representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan, Richard Holbrooke told reporters at a news briefing here.

Holbrooke was responding to a question regarding a terrorist attack at a Kabul hotel in which six Indians were killed.

Afghan president Hamid Karzai has termed it as an attack on Indians. However, the US officials said it is too early to arrive at a conclusion. 

"I understand why everyone in Pakistan and everyone in India always focuses on the other. But please, let's not draw a conclusion for which there's no proof," Holbrooke said.

However, a spokesman for Afghanistan's intelligence service was quoted as saying that his agency has evidence that Pakistanis, specifically Lashkar-e-Taiba, were involved in the attacks on February 26.

Holbrooke, however, noted that both India and Pakistan have an interest in Afghanistan.

"This is my own personal feeling about these three countries - Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. The three countries are vastly different in culture, socioeconomic standing, political development but they share a common strategic space," he said, adding that in order to understand America's policy and America's policy dilemma, one has to understand that both India and Pakistan have legitimate security interests in the region.

"I am not talking about that certain area between them which I am not going to mention by name, because I am not going to get involved in that," Holbrooke said in an apparent mention to Kashmir.

"People who have advocated that are making a proposal which I believe runs counter to stability in Afghanistan. Afghanistan must be dealt with on its merits," he argued. 

Holbrooke stressed that both countries have legitimate security interests. 

"If one country says the other has no interest, then it's hard to have a dialogue. That's why (US) president (Barack) Obama has said we encourage any sort of dialogue between the two countries, and Afghanistan is not the core of the issue, but it is a part of the issue," he said. 

"The other issues I would mention that are very critical are water and internal security. Water is a huge issue here, and increasingly on our trips, people in both countries talk about water and overall security relationships. Other issues have arisen continually," he said.