Jul 07 2008
Blast in Kabul near Indian embassy, 41 killed!
In a suicide car bomb blast near the Indian embassy in central Kabul on Monday morning, killed 4 Indians among 41 people.
The explosion took place near a row of metal turnstiles outside the Embassy, where dozens of Afghan men line up every morning to apply for visas. The suicide bomber exploded two embassy vehicles as they were entering the premises, sources said, and the intensity of the blast blowing off the gates of the embassy. Some buildings inside were also damaged in the blast.
Several nearby shops were damaged or destroyed in the blast, and smoldering ruins covered the street. Afghan police have secured the site of the blast.
Till the latest reports, the death toll from the attack has reached 41. A senior police official said. ”We have 41 people martyred,” said the official, who declined to be named.
“India and Afghanistan have a deep relationship between each other. Such attacks of the enemy will not harm our relations,” Spanta told the embassy staff, according to Baheen.
The Indian ambassador and his deputy were not inside the Embassy at the time of the blast, Baheen said.
“We are in touch with the Ambassador who is supervising arrangements for medical assistance,” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Navtej Sarna said in a statement.
“The Government of India strongly condemns this cowardly terrorist attack on its diplomatic mission in Afghanistan,” he added.
In the wake of the suicide attack, a high-level meeting was called in New Delhi by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee to discuss the situation soon after the attack.
About 3,000 Indians are working on various reconstruction and developmental projects in Afghanistan and they have often been subjected to attacks by Taliban since launching an insurgency following the ouster of the Taliban at the end of the 2001.
Earlier, 12 people were killed and 42 wounded in a suicide bomber near the gates of the interior ministry in September 2006. Additional guards and barriers were posted on the tree-lined street after that blast.
