New Delhi:
A suicide bomber was shot dead before he could attack the Indian consulate in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar this afternoon. The bomber was killed by security forces and his suicide vest did not explode.
Indian and Afghan sources have confirmed to NDTV that the Indian consulate in Kandahar was the target. The would-be bomber was killed after he managed to gain entry to a street in Kandahar that houses the Indian and Iranian consulates. All Indians, sources say, are safe and accounted for.
Earlier attacks on Indian targetsThe last attempt on an Indian mission in Afghanistan was in August 2013, when the consulate in Jalalabad was targeted. Three suicide attackers were killed; nine others, including Afghan security personnel, also died in that attack. Indian Ambassador Amar Sinha had visited the capital of the eastern province of Nangarhar, bordering Pakistan, and thanked the Afghan personnel for protecting Indian lives. Medical and compensatory assistance was also given.
In 2010, two guest houses in Kabul were attacked in which six Indians died. In July 2008, a car bomber attacked the Indian embassy in Kabul. Two senior diplomats - political counsellor V Venkateswara Rao, military attache Brigadier RD Mehta - and two Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) personnel at the gate, Ajay Pathania and Roop Singh, were killed. 58 Afghans, many of them queuing up for visas, also died in the attack. The ruthless Haqqani group, based in Pakistan, was linked to the attack.
There was an attack in 2009 on the embassy again, but no Indians were killed. Nearly two dozen Afghans, mostly civilians, died.
New Delhi has geared up for more attacks on Indian interests in the run-up to the complete withdrawal of coalition combat troops by the end of the year.