India says loud and clear: time to destroy ISI

India says loud and clear: time to destroy ISI
Agencies, Sat, Jul 12, 2008

Kabul attack: Govt was warned about terror strike
Intelligence sources say information was specifically related to an attack on a consulate.

New Delhi: India has “no doubt” that Pakistan’s spy agency the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) was involved in the bomb attack on its embassy in Kabul, National Security Advisor M K Narayanan said on Saturday.

“We not only suspect but we have a fair amount of intelligence (on Pakistan’s involvement). We have no doubt that the ISI is behind this,” Narayanan told TV channels.

“The ISI needs to be destroyed. We made this point, whenever we have had a chance, to interlocutors across the world. There might have been some tactical restraint for some time (but) obviously that restraint is no longer present,” said Narayanan.

“The people of this country deserve to know the facts rather than being carried away by people who make statements that these are insinuations. There are no insinuations.

“I think we need to pay back in the same coin. We are quite clear in our mind,” he said. Asked who should be paid back, he replied: “Those who are responsible.”

“I don’t think the ISI has ever been a part of the peace process. I think we need to make a distinction between the two.”

Narayanan admitted that the dialogue between the two countries had slowed down but believed talking is better than fighting. “…in some way we haven’t arrived at the decision that we should go for fight-fight so let talk-talk continue for the moment,” he said.

Afghanistan has blamed a “foreign intelligence agency” for the bombing of the embassy—a veiled accusation against the ISI.

Pakistan has firmly rejected the allegations with its Foreign Minister saying he was ”baffled” to hear people alleging that it was responsible for violence in Afghanistan.

As many as 58 people, including four Indians, were killed in the suicide bomber attack on the embassy on Monday.

Account of an Indian media person formerly stationed in Kabul

Caught in the great game
Behind blast lies strategic highway

July 8, 2008, The Telegraph, Calcutta

The following is the account of an Indian media person stationed in Kabul between 2003 and 2005 who did not want to be named.

I am a little surprised about this terrible attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul. Indians are hugely respected in Afghanistan, especially in Kabul, because of our age-old and cordial relations.

In my years there, I felt no hostility from the Afghans. They are, in fact, very welcoming of Indians in most parts of that country. I would say the only exceptions are certain areas bordering Pakistan, and that animosity comes because of Pakistani influence.

I travelled throughout Afghanistan during my two years there and made many friends. I think the fact that I am a Sikh and I wear a turban and beard helped. I was identifiable as an Indian instantly by all of them. Even when the embassy used to order advisories from time to time about being extra careful, I would move around freely and never had a problem.

When I heard of the attack today, I called many of my friends and some of them called me. Thankfully, all of them are well.

But this attack is quite stunning. Nobody has claimed responsibility but knowing that the Afghan people are friendly towards Indians, I suspect it could only be the handiwork of Pakistan’s ISI, or of people backed by them.

I used to live very near where the Indian embassy is. It is located in a rented accommodation in central Kabul. In fact, it is situated right opposite the Afghan interior ministry, the Koocha-e-Wazarat Daakhila, in Shehr-e-Nau. It is a very busy, bustling road.

The Indians have bought a plot of land to build a new embassy but it is yet to come up. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh laid the foundation of the embassy building during his visit in 2005. I was in Kabul at the time, covering the visit.

My house was barely a hundred yards from where the blast took place. But I never felt unsafe or insecure. The embassy was itself fairly well guarded. There were about 10 Afghan police personnel posted outside the boundary wall, and inside the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) was responsible for security. In fact, they manned the guardroom into which the suicide bombers rammed their vehicle today.

In my time, there used to be about 68 or so ITBP personnel guarding the embassy premises. But there was never any palpable sense of danger to Indians. But there are security concerns always. Kabul is a non-family station for all Indians. Only close family members are allowed short visits. My daughter once spent a fortnight with me while I was there.

Everybody knows the ISI is very active in Kabul and all over Afghanistan. Even I would get threats once in a while, but I used to ignore them. I never took a guard. My Afghan driver was my guard, interpreter and friend.

I would say even the Taliban would not attack Indians or Indian establishments unless they are under orders from the ISI. They have no independent reason to attack us. But the Pakistanis do, I think.

They are not happy with the Zaranj road project which is going to be completed later this month. That is because at the moment Afghanistan is virtually under Pakistani stranglehold. The Zaranj road project will change that because it will provide a link to key Afghan cities like Kabul and Kandahar and other parts of northern Afghanistan and Central Asia from the Iran side.

It can also be used to transport goods to and from the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas. This is a road of huge strategic importance that the ISI does not want completed.

In my experience, things were pretty good. People mixed with each other, especially Indians. In the evenings we used to sometimes go to a couple of Indian restaurants that are very popular. Or to international clubs. There was no problem.

But with this attack, this will have to drastically change, within and outside the embassy, for Indians in Afghanistan.

Islamic Terror visits Indian embassy in Kabul: 41 killed including defence attache

Evil Islam, Evil mohammedans at work again! Read A world without Islam

Terror visits Indian embassy in Kabul
Car bomb kills defence attache, counsellor

The damaged facade of the Indian embassy after a suicide attack at the site in Kabul on Monday.
Kabul/New Delhi, July 7

India’s defence attaché, a diplomat and three other staff members at its heavily fortified embassy in Kabul were among the 41 persons killed today, after a suicide bomber rammed an explosive-laden vehicle at the mission gates during the morning rush hour.

In what comes as the first major attack on an Indian mission abroad and the deadliest suicide bombing in Kabul since the US-led NATO forces ousted the Taliban in late 2001, defence attaché Brigadier R.D. Mehta, counsellor Venkateswara Rao, two ITBP personnel, Ajai Pathania and Roop Singh, and an India-origin Afghan working at the embassy were killed. But Indian ambassador Jayant Prasad was unharmed in the attack that also left 141 persons, most of them visa seekers, injured.

The impact of the explosion was so huge that Rao’s body was flung over the roof and the embassy’s gates were blown away. Afghan interior ministry spokesman Abdul H. Ashiq said the bomb was placed in a Toyota Corolla car driven by the suicide bomber.

“There was a loud bang at around 8.15 am. Minutes later I saw cars with smashed windows, several damaged shops and wounded and dead people lying scattered on the road,” Danish Karokhil, head of the independent Pajhwok news agency whose office is near the Indian embassy, told PTI from Kabul.

No one has yet taken responsibility for the attack, suspected to have been carried out by the Taliban. A family of five waiting for visa at the embassy gates was among the dead, Karokhil said.

The Afghan interior ministry said a fifth dead employee of the Indian Embassy was identified as Niamutullah, adding that three Indians were among the injured. Seven Afghan guards deployed at the mission were also killed in the blast that damaged two Indian embassy vehicles. Some witnesses said the bomber was trying to target the two diplomatic vehicles as they were entering the embassy premises.

Wounded people lay on the road wailing for help amid blood and severed limbs as a cloud of dust and smoke billowed from the site after the blast. “People in the city are tense,” Aunohita, an Indian journalist, said, adding that the entire area around the embassy was cordoned off by US-led coalition troops.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai said in a statement that “we strongly condemned the terrorist attack on the Indian embassy and considers it the work of enemies of India-Afghan friendship”. Afghan foreign minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta visited the embassy soon after the bombing and said such attacks by the ‘enemy’ will not harm the ‘deep relationship’ between India and Afghanistan. — PTI
ISI hand suspected in Kabul embassy blast: Sources
7 Jul 2008

NEW DELHI: The involvement of Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI is suspected in the terror strike at the Indian embassy in Kabul, whose main targets appear to have been the two senior officials, including the Defence Attache killed in the attack.

An explosive-laden car rammed into the Indian embassy gate in the Shahr-i-Naw area as two cars carrying Brigadier Ravi Dutt Mehta and Counsellor V Venkateswara Rao were entering the embassy compound, official sources said here.

Brig Mehta was just beginning his tenure in Kabul having been posted to the city nearly five months back on February 15, 2008. He was an air defence artillery officer who was commissioned into the armed forces in June 1976.

Two ITBP personnel Ajai Pathania and Roop Singh were also among the 41 people killed in the strike in which 141 were injured.

Rao’s body was flung over the roof by the impact of the explosion that blew off the embassy’s gates and outer structure and damaged buildings inside the compound. Two Indian embassy vehicles were also damaged, an official said, adding over 140 people were injured in the blast.

Wounded people lay on the road wailing for help amid blood and severed limbs after the blast as a cloud of dust and smoke billowed from the site.

Mehta had recently taken his wife Sunita and two children — Flight Lieutenant Udit Mehta, M S Bhawiya Mehta — to Kabul to spend their summer vacation.

India said it is rushing a high-level team, headed by Nalin Surie, Secretary (West) to Kabul to assess the “emergency” situation there.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai had blamed the “enemies” of the strong friendship between Afghanistan and India for the attack but did not name any person or group.