dineshchaturvedi
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ISI using its assets to deter India, RIP to people who are dead.
KABUL — An Afghan intelligence official is blaming the Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba for last week's car bomb and suicide attacks that killed 16 people in the heart of the capital, Kabul.
The Afghan Taliban have already claimed responsibility.
Lashkar-e-Taiba is the same group India blames for the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks that killed 166 people, further souring relations between nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan.
Saeed Ansari, a spokesman for Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security, said Tuesday that his agency has evidence that Pakistanis were involved in the attacks on Kabul guest houses frequented by Indians and other foreigners. Six Indians were among the dead in the attacks.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
KABUL (AP) — NATO says a coalition service member has been killed in the Taliban-dominated Afghan south.
The alliance said its fighter was killed Tuesday by small arms fire but would not identify the nationality or give further details.
However, spokesman Master Sgt. Jeff Loftin said the death was not related to the ongoing Marjah offensive in the southern province of Helmand. American and Afghan forces cleared the Taliban-held area after a two-week offensive and are now working to secure the former insurgent stronghold.
Tuesday's death came a day after six NATO troops died in separate attacks across Afghanistan, a grim beginning to March. A total of 49 international troops died in Afghanistan last month.
AfPak envoy says India was not the target
New Delhi: Indian officials have described as “absolutely incorrect” the statement by Washington's AfPak envoy, Richard Holbrooke, that India was not the target of last week's terrorist attack in Kabul.
The officials expressed surprise and even consternation at this assertion, which, they said, ignored the fact that the terrorists' primary target was a building used by the Indian medical mission. The U.S. assessment, they said, also ran counter to what Afghanistan's intelligence agency, the National Directorate of Security, has established so far.
On Tuesday, NSD spokesman Saeed Ansari told AP in Kabul that there was evidence Urdu-speaking Pakistanis from the Lashkar-e-Taiba had been involved in the attack and not the Afghan Taliban.
According to Indian officials, the NSD has established that the terrorists were indeed looking for Indians and had specific information about who was present, including NGO women from SEWA and a senior diplomat on secondment to the Afghan Interior Ministry.
For now, officials here are guarded about which Pakistan-based terrorist outfit might be involved. “Groups like the Haqqani network, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and LeT are all mixed up with one another,” an Indian official said on condition of anonymity. “What we know at present is only circumstantial but [things] should be clearer in a while,” said another official, adding, such are “the glorious uncertainties of barbarism.”
Speaking to reporters in Washington on Wednesday, Mr. Holbrooke said: “I don't accept the fact that this was an attack on an Indian facility… There were foreigners, non-Indian foreigners hurt. It was a soft target. Let's not jump to conclusions.” He added: “I understand why everyone in Pakistan and everyone in India always focuses on the other. But please, let's not draw a conclusion for which there's no proof.”
New Delhi, however, believes there is no room for doubt. “A huge bomb is detonated just outside the Indian medical mission. A terrorist walks in lobbying grenades and firing from room to room. He had prior knowledge about the occupants… If this is not an attack targeted on Indians, what can it be?” said a senior official.
Indian officials also said the Afghans would not make an allegation of Pakistani involvement loosely. “From their point of view, this is a risky statement to make since their government is making overtures to Pakistan,” said an official. “So for their intel people to say the LeT was involved and that it has close ties with the ISI — obviously they are taking a huge risk and must have very good information.”
Afghan investigators have noted that last week's terrorist attack was very different from the January 18 Taliban strike at the Faroshga mall in central Kabul. The gunmen had allowed Afghan shoppers to leave before training their fire on the security forces and destroying the building. In contrast, the Afghans guarding the Indian medical mission were the first to be shot dead by the terrorist who entered the compound following the huge explosion triggered outside. “The guards shouted ‘Don't kill us, we're Afghans' but they were shot all the same,” an Indian official said.
NEW DELHI: Fresh evidence has emerged pointing to Lashkar-e-Toiba’s (LeT) involvement on the deadly attack against Indians in Kabul. “We are
very close to the exact proof and evidence that the attack on Indian guest house is not the work of Afghan Taliban but was carried out by Lashkar-e-Toiba network,” Sayed Ansari, Afghan intelligence spokesman, was quoted as saying by the Washington Post .
Ansari said Afghan officials had determined that one of the bombers involved in the Friday attack yelled: “Where is the Indian director”, as he stormed into one of the hotels. The news report said others had also sought out the Indians. “This kind of information, where the Indians are, is not the ability of the Afghan Taliban to know,” Mr Ansari said.
However, the report said, American intelligence officials in Kabul believe that the attack was carried out by the Haqqani network, a Pakistan-based Afghan militant group. But, the paper said, that Indian officials suspect that the two groups worked together to stage the raid. According to counter-terror experts here, LeT is now more than a mere Pakistani terror outfit. It has strong connections with Al Qaeda and globally on par with it. The paper said that the involvement of LeT would have significant implications as it would undermine the fragile peace efforts between the two countries.
India and Afghanistan had previously implicated Pakistan and its Haqqani network for the bloody 2008 bombings of Indian Embassy in Kabul that claimed 58 lives. The emerging collaboration between LeT and Afghan militant groups was corroborated by retired Pakistani Brigadier Mohammad Saad who told the Post, “they (LeT) are aligning with the Taliban.”
The Pakistani army officer said the members of LeT were training with Haqqani network in North Waziristan and that language problems force these recruits to operate alongside Afghan militants inside Afghanistan.
NEW DELHI: India has officially protested to Washington about Richard Holbrooke's comments about Indians not being the targets in the Kabul attack last week. The message was given in both Delhi and Washington, that Holbrooke's comments were not only inaccurate they were most "unhelpful". The issue will figure prominently when foreign secretary Nirupama Rao travels to the US next week.
As national security advisor Shivshankar Menon travels to Kabul on Friday for talks with the Afghan leadership on bilateral relations and security, sources said India is bracing for more attacks on its interests and its citizens in Afghanistan.
Pakistan-supported terror groups, security sources said, were stepping up the offensive against India, in a determined push to get India out of Afghanistan. Speaking to TOI, India's ambassador to Afghanistan Jayant Prasad said, "India will continue with all its activities in Afghanistan."
Menon will hold meetings with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who has reportedly ordered a thorough review of the security procedures, particularly for Indians. Menon will recommit India to helping Afghanistan, and will increase cooperation with Afghanistan against Pakistan-sponsored terror attacks.
Rao is expected in Washington next week for the high-tech cooperation group meeting, and the nuclear summit. The Kabul issue has now been pushed higher up in diplomatic priority.
According to intelligence inputs here, India's consulates at Kandahar and Jalalabad are at particular risk. But even in Kabul, India is rethinking its entire security structure to protect Indian citizens. Indian presence in Afghanistan will mean little if Indians don't want to work there, as was evident with Air India pilots' protests on Thursday. That's what Pakistan wants, and India wants to prevent.
Of the over 4,000 Indians in Afghanistan, a small percentage work for government projects. A large number of them work on contract for other companies, many of them based overseas. Another percentage work in India-assisted projects. In the post-attack situation, India is now looking at options of taking on the security of all these people as well, which could include housing them in secure, separate complexes. "Safeguarding their lives is important for us," said an official.
In his conversation with the PM, Karzai has promised to ramp up security for Indians in Afghanistan. But the government believes that there is only so much the Afghan government can do. India will have to beef up the rest. The bulk of security for Indian facilities in Afghanistan is provided by the Indo-Tibetan Border Police and this presence will definitely increase.
In many ways, Pakistan-sponsored attacks are only increasing India's security footprint in Afghanistan. But they continue to try to push India out. Last year, a Hindi teacher in Jalalabad was forced to flee after he was virtually hounded out by the Pakistani Taliban.
The attackers on Friday left behind certain tell-tale signs that betrayed their identity, said sources. First, Afghan Taliban have always asked civilians to leave before launching attacks against state or military targets. This time, they were clearly targeting the civilians.
Reports quoted Sayed Ansari, spokesman for Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security (NDS) as saying, "We are very close to the exact proof and evidence that the attack on the Indian guesthouse... is not the work of the Afghan Taliban but this attack was carried out by Lashkar-e-Taiba network."
Security sources also said the staff at the hotels and guesthouses that were targeted are generally Pakistanis who are recruited by the Kabul ISI station to keep tabs on the Indians. That was probably the reason why the attackers came with such precise information and went from room to room asking for the Indians.
I regret any misunderstanding caused by my comments on the recent terrorist attack in Kabul, which claimed the lives of 6 Indians and at least ten citizens of other nations. I did not say Indians were not the target, but that initially it looked like the target was not an official Indian facility. Early reports on events like this are often unreliable, and I try not to jump to conclusions. We all know that Indian citizens have and continue to be targeted by terrorists, including inside Afghanistan. My heart goes out to the families of all of the victims.
The Afghan people and international community deeply appreciate the very substantial humanitarian and reconstruction assistance that India provides Afghanistan. The willingness of India to take risks and make sacrifices to help Afghanistan is testament to India's commitment global peace and prosperity and a vital part of the international commitment to Afghanistan's future.