Three ITBP personnel injured in suicide attack in Kabul: FS

Three ITBP personnel were "slightly injured" in a suicide bomb attack directed at the Indian embassy in Kabul early this morning, foreign secretary Nirupama Rao said here.
 
"The blast occurred at 8.27 Kabul time. All the personnel inside the embassy at the time of the blast are safe. Three of our personnel from the ITBP, who were guarding the perimeter wall of the embassy, have been slightly injured from the shrapnel from the bomb blast but there has been no loss of life," Rao said.
 
"The blast was directed at the embassy because the suicide bomber came up to the outside perimeter wall of the Indian embassy with a car loaded with explosives, obviously with the aim of targeting the embassy," she said, when asked if the attack was aimed towards the Indian mission.

Rao said she had already spoken to Ambassador Jayant Prasad, who has informed her that all the members of the embassy are safe.

She said the intensity of the blast was "more or less the same" as the July 2008 attack on the mission in which four Indians, including a senior IFS officer and a Brigadier Rank defence attache, were killed.

Rao said the security measures for the personnel and the mission taken after the 2008 attack have "worked effectively and have been able to prevent" what could have been a bigger tragedy today.
 
After the July 7, 2008 attack, Indian authorities had erected a huge wall of concrete around the embassy to secure the mission which was almost destroyed in that blast.

India has also acquired several bullet proof vehicles for the embassy personnel.In the 2008 attack, IFS officer VV Rao and defence attache RD Mehta were killed while they were entering the embassy in their vehicles.
 
Rao also asserted that India will take "whatever measures are needed to safeguard security of our personnel and our interests in Afghanistan."

Two of the three injured ITBP jawans have been identified as hawaldar Ravinder Singh and constable Gunwant.

"There has been damage to our watch tower," Prasad said, adding some doors and windows were blown off under the impact of the blast.