Kabul/Delhi - A powerful explosion killed at least 44
people, including high-ranking Indian embassy officials, and wounded
174 others in an apparent suicide attack at the Indian embassy in
Kabul Monday, officials said.
Sources in the Afghan interior ministry said at least 44 people
were killed 147 others wounded in the deadliest suicide bombing since
the fall of Taliban regime in 2001.
An official statement by the Interior Ministry said more than 100
people were killed and injured in the incident, but gave no details.
According to the statement, initial findings showed the bomber
targeted the Indian embassy.
'Terrorists in cooperation with some secret agencies in the region
carried out this attack,' it said.
The victims were mostly civilians, including women and children,
Abdullah Fahim, spokesman of the Afghan Health Ministry said.
Four Indians, including two high-ranking embassy officials, were
among four Indian nationals killed in bombing attack, Indian Foreign
Minister Pranab Mukherjee said at a briefing in the Indian capital.
He said Defence Attache Brigadier R Mehta and political counselor
V Venkat Rao were killed in the blast, along with two Indo-Tibetan
Border Police security personnel - Ajay Panthia and Roop Singh. An
Afghan national employed at the Indian mission had also been killed,
he said.
'A special team is leaving for Kabul immediately to attend this
emergency situation facing our mission,' Mukherjee said. The team,
headed by a high-ranking diplomat, would include security officials
and a medical team.
Diplomatic officials said the team would also re-evaluate the
security of Indians working in Afghanistan.
The bodies of the four Indians and all those seriously injured
would be flown back to Delhi as soon as possible, diplomatic
officials said.
Militants, over the past two years, have frequently attacked
Indian projects and personnel in Afghanistan. India is involved in
several reconstruction and rehabilitation projects in the country.
'The government of India strongly condemns this cowardly terrorist
attack on its diplomatic mission in Afghanistan. Such acts of terror
will not deter us from fulfilling our commitments to the government
and people of Afghanistan,' India's External Affairs Ministry
spokesman Navtej Sarna said in a statement.
Earlier, the Afghan Defence Ministry said five people died on the
spot while two died in hospital after a suicide bomber detonated his
explosives-packed car outside the gate of the Indian embassy.
Local Afghan media reported that at least 15 people were killed or
injured in the attack. A television station quoted doctors from the
hospital saying at least 16 injured people had arrived in the
emergency room so far.
'The situation is critical and the blast destroyed several
vehicles parked around the area,' a witness said.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai, while strongly condemning suicide
attack outside then Indian embassy, said 'enemies' of the strong
friendship between Afghanistan and India targeted the Indian embassy.
A statement issued from the president's office said, 'The
president strongly condemned the terrorist attack against the Indian
embassy in Kabul and considers it the work of enemies of
Afghanistan-India friendship.'
The statement quoted Karzai as saying, 'Enemies of Afghanistan
cannot stop friendly relations of the two countries by carrying out
such attacks.'
A statement released by the United Nations Assistance Mission in
Afghanistan UNAMA) said, 'It can only be described as a cowardly and
heinous crime. I condemn it in the strongest possible terms. In no
culture, no country, and no religion is there any excuse or
justification for such acts.'
Afghan Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta visited the Indian
embassy and met the Indian deputy ambassador, said Sultan Ahmed
Baheen said, spokesman for the foreign ministry, adding, 'The foreign
minister offered condolence and sympathised with the embassy staff on
behalf of the Afghan people.'
Following the blast, US troops in Kabul opened fire on a car near
the Iranian embassy, injuring at least one person.
An Interior Ministry spokesman confirmed the incident, saying the
US forces were coming to help secure the crime scene.
'A car was coming near to the US forces and US troops opened fire,
in result one person was injured,' the spokesman said.
In southern Afghanistan, a soldier of the NATO-led International
Security Assistance Force died from injuries sustained in an
explosion, the military said Monday.
It did not identify nationality of the soldier.
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