KABUL/NEW DELHI - A Taliban suicide bomber exploded near the Indian embassy in Kabul Thursday, killing 12 people and injuring nearly 90 in the second such attack since July 2008.
No Indian was killed in the devastating bombing on the busy road outside the embassy. Afghan officials said the dead were one police officer and 11 Afghan civilians, most of whom were Indian visa seekers.
The deafening 8.27 a.m. blast extensively damaged the embassy’s outer wall and blew off windows and doors, injuring three Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) personnel deployed outside the fortified mission.
The attack was heard in a large area of Kabul and caused a panic run as scores of people fell bleeding and others ran for cover screaming for help.
Zemarai Bashary, an interior ministry spokesman, confirmed the attack was carried out by a suicide car bomber.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the US joined India to condemn the attack that left some of the injured in serious condition.
The road on which the car bomb exploded also houses the Afghan interior ministry and some government departments, but the Taliban said the target was the Indian embassy.
In a statement posted on the insurgent’s website, the Taliban claimed that some senior Indian embassy officials were killed when one of their bombers, identified only as Khalid, targeted the building.
“The embassy building, the main target of the attack, was destroyed in the powerful blast,” it said, adding the interior ministry was also damaged.
Indian ambassador Jayant Prasad said all his staff were safe. “The explosion I heard at my residence was exactly the same that I heard at my home (in July 2008),” Prasad told CNN-IBN news channel from Kabul.
He said the bombing damaged a watch tower and that the injuries suffered by the ITBP personnel were not serious in nature. The embassy wall bore the brunt of the blast.
Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao said in New Delhi that the explosion was “more or less similar” to the July 2008 bombing that killed over 50 people including two Indian diplomats and was blamed on Pakistan’s intelligence agencies. Islamabad denied responsibility.
She said the stringent measures taken by New Delhi following the earlier had worked “effectively”. This included putting up high-rise walls around the embassy and a multi-layered entry procedure.
Rao said “the suicide bomber came up to the outer perimeter in a car loaded with explosives”.
The attack occurred a day after India pledged to continue to “invest and endure” in Afghanistan and asked the international community to maintain a long-term commitment to that country.
New Delhi has pledged $1.2 billion for the reconstruction of Afghanistan, making it the sixth largest bilateral donor.
Even before the Taliban claimed responsibility, an Indian official told IANS in New Delhi: “It’s the handiwork of people who do not want India to continue with its reconstruction activities that Afghan people are happy with.”
President Karzai called it “a terrorist act against our innocent people”.
US ambassador Timothy Roemer told reporters in New Delhi: “Our heart goes out to India and the victims of terrorism… It is deeply troubling.”
On July 7 last year, over 50 people, including two Indian diplomats and two Indian security personnel, were killed in a similar suicide attack at the embassy. That attack wounded 147 people. Most of the dead and wounded were Afghans.
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