Alert ITBP guards prevented bomber from storming Embassy building

Wed, Jul 9 02:24 AM

Had the two ITBP guards not hesitated in lifting the anti-bomb hexa-barrier at the Indian Embassy in Kabul on Monday, there is evidence to suggest that the suicide bomber would have managed to ram the RDX-laden car into the embassy building - a repeat of the 1983 bombing of the US Marines barracks in Beirut.

The Indian Express has learnt that embassy officials told a visiting security team, led by External Affairs Secretary Nalin Surie, that the target of the massive bomb attack was the embassy and not the two officials who were killed in the explosion. The Land Rover, carrying Counsellor V Venkates-wara Rao and Defence Attache Brigadier R D Mehta, was the first vehicle to drive up to the embassy on Monday morning. Seventeen other officials inside the embassy at that time had earlier walked to work.

Sources said that ITBP guards Ajai Pathania and Roop Singh hesitated in lifting the barrier after spotting another vehicle directly behind the Land Rover. Mehta was in the front seat on the right while Rao was seated behind the driver. The fact that one of the dead ITBP guards was found clutching the barrier suggests that they became suspicious of the tailing car, identified by the Afghan Interior Ministry as a white Toyota Corolla.

According to officials, the car-bomber decided to trigger the explosives as he probably realised that the guards had become suspicious. The device detonated even as the Land Rover inched inside the Embassy.

In the 1983 beirut bombing, an explosive-laden car rammed the US Marines barrack after crashing through the barbed wire fence.

Embassy officials in Kabul are still studying the situation, they believe that the modus operandi was a classic car-bombing technique.

As the team led by Nalin Surie reviewed security at the embassy today, officials said the height of the hexa-barrier had been raised from 5 feet to 8.5 feet after the Afghan government alerted the embassy about a possible attack a fortnight ago. So powerful was the Monday explosion that it left a three metre crater and hurled people and cars within the radius of 20 yards. Even the Air India office was hit and had to be shifted to a nearby street.

The Karzai government today repeated its claim that it suspected the role of a foreign intelligence agency in the bombing, clearly referring to the Pakistani ISI.

"Everything has the hallmark of a particular intelligence agency that has conducted similar terrorist acts inside Afghanistan in the past," Presidential spokesman Humayun Hamidzada told a news conference in Kabul. "We believe firmly that there is a particular intelligence agency behind it," said Hamidzada. "I'm not going to name it anymore, I think it's pretty obvious."

Afghan analysts say Pakistan is unsettled by the close relations between main rival India and Afghanistan. Pakistan Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani denied his country had any role in the Indian Embassy attack and said Islamabad's interests were in a stable Afghanistan.

But this Afghan government claim is being backed by some specific evidence with the Project Director of the strategic Zaranj-Delaram road, being built by the Indian Border Roads Organisation. He frequently gets reports about infiltration by suicide bombers at the site.

The embassy staff in Kabul have no plans to abandon their duties in the wake of the bombing. Ambassador Jayant Prasad even asked the non-essential staff if they wished to fly to Delhi in the IL-76 which had flown in the MEA team but none wanted to return.

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