Gunmen armed with heavy weapons, including rocket propelled grenades, attacked the Indian Consulate in Afghanistan’s Herat province on Friday triggering a 10-hour long encounter with security forces in which all four attackers were killed.
The gunmen, who tried to enter the complex and later fired from neighbouring buildings, were possibly planning to take consulate staffers as hostage as forces recovered large number of weapons and a packet of dry fruits from them. All the diplomatic staff are safe.
The assault began at 3.35 am when the gunmen reportedly opened fire on the consulate from a nearby house with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades. One of the terrorists was shot by alert Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) commandos while the former was trying to scale the wall of the consulate. Two other attackers were reportedly surrounded by over 150 security personnel, including troops of the ITBP, and were shot dead. Nearly 10 hours later, the fourth terrorist was also killed.
The security forces recovered one AK 47 rifle, an Under Barrel Grenade launcher (UBGl), 17 live Rocket Propelled Gun shells, four hand grenades, dry fruits from the body of the terrorist killed by the ITBP commando.
Officials, studying the attack, said the recovery of such heavy weaponry coupled with dry fruits indicates the attackers were planning to escalate the situation by taking “hostages” from those in the mission staff.They said one of the slain terrorists was a youngster and the fact that he could climb the 12-feet wall of the consulate with his bare hands shows he was “commando” trained in such exercises.
Intelligence agencies in Delhi estimate the attack on Indian Consulate in Herat was a move by jehadis, probably the Taliban, to derail Afganistan President Hamid Karzai’s proposed visit to India to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Narendra Modi as Prime Minister. However, no group has claimed responsibility for the attack. Meanwhile, Modi talked to Karzai, who has made no change in his scheduled visit to New Delhi.
In New Delhi, ITBP Director General Subhash Goswami said the attack had been successfully repulsed and a high alert had been sounded and the security had been beefed up at the Indian Embassy in Kabul and consulates in Jalalabad, Mazar-e-Sharif and Kandahar, besides Herat. Security has also been strengthened at other Indian assets there.
A squad of 23 personnel was manning the Herat Consulate when it was attacked on Friday morning. The ITBP, a paramilitary force under the Union Home Ministry, has recently bolstered its security at all Indian installations in Afghanistan by sending a squad of 80 trained commandos to that country.One attacker was killed while climbing the wall to enter the premises of the Consulate which also houses the residence of the Consul General, Indian Ambassador to Afghanistan Amar Sinha said in Kabul.
Sinha said there were nine Indians in the mission apart from local Afghans at the time of attack. Meanwhile, a spokesperson in the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi confirmed that “four attackers (were) killed.”Condemning the attack, Modi said he is closely monitoring the situation. Modi spoke to Indian Ambassador in Afghanistan Amar Sinha following the attack.“I condemn the attack on our consulate in Herat, Afghanistan. Closely monitoring the situation. I have spoken to the Ambassador as well,” he tweeted.BJP president Rajnath Singh too condemned the attack and lauded the role of brave ITBP jawans and officers for putting up a robust defence.
lauding the role of Indian security forces for their brave action, he said, “Hats off to our brave ITBP jawans and officers who have successfully defended India’s consulate in Herat (Afghanistan).”Afghanistan has witnessed a rise in the Taliban attacks as foreign troops plan to withdraw from the war-torn country by the end of the year.In August last year, a blast at the Indian Consulate in Jalalabad city near the border with Pakistan killed nine people, including six children. No Indian officials were hurt.
The Indian Embassy in Kabul was attacked twice in 2008 and 2009 that left 75 people dead.India has invested in some major infrastructure projects in Afghanistan like Salma hydroelectric dam in Herat province and the Afghan parliament building in Kabul.India’s development assistance programme for Afghanistan currently stands at $2 billion, making it the leading donor nation among all regional countries.