HERAT: A handful of heavily armed insurgents, including suicide bombers, launched a rocket propelled grenade and gun attack on the Indian consulate in Afghanistan’s western city of Herat hours before dawn on Friday, officials said.
Indian staff at the mission escaped soon after the shooting began at around 3 a.m.. Police said Afghan security forces had killed the attackers, who were holed up in buildings overlooking the consulate, following a firefight that lasted several hours.
“They fired a couple of RPG shots. It was dark and they couldn’t verify where it was coming from,” India’s ambassador to Kabul Amar Sinha told Reuters by telephone.
He said there had been around 10 staff resident at the consulate in Herat, which stands close to the border with Iran and is Afghanistan’s third largest city.
The attack underscored a worrying security picture as Afghanistan prepares to take over from foreign combat troops after more than 12 years of war against a Taliban insurgency and prepares for a presidential election run-off next month.
The consulate was guarded by a team of commandos from the Indo-Tibetan Border Police. Afghan security forces form an outer ring, an Indian security official in New Delhi said.
Herat police chief General Samihullah Qatra told Reuters four attackers, including suicide bombers, had entered houses close to the consulate before dawn and began shooting into the compound.
“There were three suicide bombers armed with AK-47, RPG, hand grenade and suicide vests. Our security forces killed all of them. Only five of our security forces were wounded.”
It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack and no one claimed responsibility, though suspicion would inevitably fall on the Taliban and other loosely associated groups.
On the other side of the country, in the northeast province of Badakhshan, Taliban fightes were holding 27 police and officials hostage, and dozens of people have killed or wounded. (PTI)
Attackers killed
Indian Consulate in Afghanistan’s Herat province was on Friday attacked by four heavily-armed gunmen, who were subsequently killed by the security forces after a nine-hour-long encounter.
All the diplomatic staff were safe. In the pre-dawn assault, the gunmen armed with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades opened fire on the Consulate which houses two buildings in the western Afghan city, bordering Iran.
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.
He 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 said that “four attackers (were) killed.”
One gunman was killed by ITBP (Indo-Tibetan Border Police) personnel while three others were shot dead by Afghan forces after a marathon encounter. The spokesperson said that staff at the Consulate were safe and their morale was high.
“India-Afghanistan officials (were) in touch on attack on India’s Consulate in Herat. Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh (was) monitoring (the) situation,” the official said.
Afghan police officials said gunmen opened fire on the Consulate from a nearby home.
The firing lasted for nine hours. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. Afghanistan has experienced 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 failed bombing against 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 $two billion, making it the leading donor nation among all regional countries. (PTI)