NSA in Kabul to review Indians’ safety

A week after a terror attack in which seven Indians were killed, India’s National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon has arrived in Kabul on Friday to review safety measures for Indians in Afghanistan. He has already met Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai and they discussed new further security steps, Indian TV channels reported.

During his two-day visit, the NSA will discuss the security of about 4000 Indians working on developmental projects across Afghanistan. Seven Indians, including three Major rank Army officers, were killed in the Feb 26 attack which New Delhi says targeted Indians. The Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) which has been blamed for the attack has denied any role. The Taliban’s initial claim for the terror bombing too is unsubstantiated.

Meanwhile, New Delhi has firmed up a security plan aimed at reducing the radar signature of Indians without lowering their profile or commitment to the development of Afghanistan in the aftermath of the terror attack. Government sources said concentrated Indians in 24 locations in Kabul including the embassy compound and chancery, would now be put up in smaller numbers all over Kabul so that the target size or signature is reduced.

Besides, all Indian government employees in transit would be housed in specially constructed dormitories — work for which has already begun — within the Indian chancery in Kabul to prevent them from being targeted by terrorists. Two of the seven Indians who died in February 26 attack were in transit from Herat and Kandahar and were planning to board the flight to New Delhi the next day.

New Delhi is convinced that the Kabul terror attack was sponsored by ISI with Indians being specific targets. According to the Indian victims staying at the Arya Hotel, the attackers spoke Urdu and one of terrorists was heard saying “Bhago... police. (Run, police)” when armed Afghan police surrounded the hotel after hearing the gunfire.

According to senior officials, the entire Arya Hotel would have been reduced to rubble if the IED in the car was a shaped charge. The car bomb went all over the place creating a large crater and blasting out the façade of Park Residence Hotel and a mall some distance away. In fact, after the attack on Indians, Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai was apparently agitated that terror attacks were taking place within 800 metres of his office while 15,000 ISAF troops were out to neutralise 300 Taliban in the Marjah offensive.

Meanwhile, in New Delhi on Friday, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh declared that the recent "cowardly" act of terrorists to target Indians on goodwill mission in Kabul would not "bend the will" of India to help people of Afghanistan. Replying to a debate in Parliament on Motion of Thanks to the President's Address, he referred to the February 26 attack and said the entire nation was outraged by the incident in which seven innocent Indian lives were lost. "These Indian nationals were in Afghanistan on a mission of goodwill and friendship helping to construct the peaceful and democratic Afghanistan that our Afghan friends desire. We condemn this cowardly act," he said. Noting that India's assistance has received widespread support among the people of Afghanistan, he said, "I wish to assure this House that such attacks will not bend the will of the people of India." He said India will assist the people of Afghanistan in "securing their legitimate right to determine their destiny in the manner they chose without outside interference."

- Asian Tribune -