By Manish Chand, IANS,
New Delhi : Preliminary investigations have found that nearly 80-100 kg of high-quality RDX was used in the suicide attack on the Indian mission in Kabul that killed 54 Afghans and four Indians, India’s ambassador to Afghanistan Jayant Prasad said Friday.
“On the basis of preliminary evidence, we are relatively sure that RDX used was of high quality. Nearly 80-100 kg of RDX was used in Monday’s car bomb attack,” Prasad told IANS in a phone interview from Kabul.
“We are examining whether or not there was additional material. We have found landmines and tank shells designed to inflict maximum injury and casualties,” Prasad said four days after the most audacious attack on the Indian mission, the first ever terror attack on India abroad that killed an Indian diplomat and a military attaché of brigadier rank. Two ITBP personnel were also killed in the car bombing outside the Indian embassy located in a leafy suburb of Kabul.
The Indian envoy, however, declined to speculate on the identity of the attackers, saying it was the job of security agencies to find out the perpetrators.
He, however, underlined that the Taliban, which has claimed responsibility for many deadly killings in Afghanistan, has dissociated itself from the attack.
“Even Gulbuddin Hekmatyar has said that the Taliban has nothing to do with the attack,” the envoy said. “However, we can’t be sure about anything and we can’t take Taliban’s word at face value,” he added.
The envoy said that the Afghan government has shared its initial findings with the Indian government about the suspected involvement of a foreign intelligence agency – which is widely seen as a euphemism for Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) Directorate.
The Afghan interior minister had said the attack had been carried out “in coordination and consultation with an active intelligence service in the region.”
India’s Army Chief General Deepak Kapoor Thursday indicated the hand of the resurgent Taliban-ISI combine in the Kabul attack. The possibility of Pakistan’s ISI being involved in the “well-planned and pre-meditated” suicide bombing on the Indian mission cannot be ruled out, Gen Kapoor said. Pakistan has denied any hand in the Kabul attack.
Alluding to an intelligence alert about a likely attack on the Indian embassy, the envoy said: “There was a written communication from the Afghan authorities about a likely attack. We were prepared for any eventuality – a commando attack or a suicide attack.”
In view of the alert, the mission took a slew of measures to spruce up security that included the setting up of blast-proof hexa barrier – a thick wire mesh-and-mud barrier covering the embassy on all sides.
Indian authorities had received a series of intelligence alerts – the most serious one as late as June 23 – about an imminent terror strike against Indian facilities in Afghanistan, a senior Indian official said here.
“This hexa barrier absorbed most of the shock of the explosion. Otherwise, the casualties would have been much higher.”
“That’s why there was little structural damage. Only some window panes and doors were damaged and we are getting them replaced,” the envoy added.
“As an ambassador of India, I am well protected. There is no answer to a suicide bomber, however. It’s a professional hazard. Nothing will deter India from carrying on its reconstruction work in Afghanistan,” the envoy said when asked whether he feared a threat on his life.
India has pledged $850 million for various reconstruction projects in Afghanistan. Nearly 3,700 Indians are engaged in a wide spectrum of projects ranging from roads and bridges to power and infrastructure in which around 3,700 Indians are engaged in the violence-torn country.