KABUL/NEW DELHI - At least 17 people were killed and 76 injured, some seriously, when a Taliban suicide bomber detonated a car packed with explosives near the Indian embassy in Kabul Thursday morning in the second such terror attack since July 2008.
Barring three Indian paramilitary personnel who were injured, all the other casualties were Afghans. The dead included two police officers and 15 civilian visa seekers.
The deafening 8.27 a.m. blast extensively damaged the embassy’s fortified outer wall and blew off windows and doors of the building. The injured Indians were from the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) deployed outside the mission.
The explosion, the fifth suicide strike in Kabul in two months, was heard in a large area. Scores of people outside the embassy fell bleeding and others ran for cover crying for help. It left a large crater outside the embassy.
The interior ministry confirmed the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber. The Afghan foreign ministry suggested the hand of the Pakistani intelligence. The Taliban quickly claimed responsibility and identified the suicide bomber as Khalid.
The foreign ministry said “the attack was orchestrated by the same group stationed outside Afghanistan that planned and executed the first attack on the Indian embassy in July last year”. That attack killed more than 50 people and was blamed on Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
Afghan President Hamid Karzai joined the US, Britain and the European Union in condemning the attack.
“This is a terrorist attack, and an obvious attack on defenceless Afghan civilians,” Karzai said. It is “a terrorist act against our innocent people”.
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, it claimed that some senior Indian officials were among the dead. “The embassy building, the main target of the attack, was destroyed in the powerful blast.”
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 said from Kabul.
He said the bombing damaged a watch tower and the embassy wall bore the brunt of the blast.
India pledged not to bow to terrorists.
Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor said: “India will not be intimidated by these criminal killers. We will take all steps necessary to protect Indian lives and installations in Afghanistan.”
Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao said the explosion was “more or less similar” to the 2008 bombing whose victims included two Indian diplomats.
She said the stringent measures taken by New Delhi following the earlier attack had worked “effectively”. This included putting up high-rise walls around the embassy and a multi-layered entry procedure.
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.
US ambassador Timothy Roemer said in New Delhi: “Our heart goes out to India, to the victims of terrorism.”
British Foreign Minister David Miliband spoke to his Indian counterpart S.M. Krishna. “I condemn unreservedly the awful terrorist attack which took place in Kabul.”
The head of the European Commission delegation to Afghanistan, Hansjorg Kretschmer, said: “The attack will not be a deterrent for Europe from being a key actor in the security sector and justice reform process.”
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