Rao leaves for Kabul
October 9th, 2009 - 4:52 pm ICT by IANS
New Delhi, Oct 9 (IANS) Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao left for Kabul Friday to review the situation in the aftermath of the suicide attack Thursday outside the Indian embassy in Kabul, in which 17 people were killed.
Rao will review security arrangements for the mission and inspect the damage after the blast, which was more powerful than a similar attack in July 2008, sources said.
She will also meet top Afghan officials and ministers to get their preliminary assessment about the perpetrators of the attack.
At least 17 people were killed and 76 injured, some seriously, when a Taliban suicide bomber detonated a car packed with explosives near the Indian embassy in Kabul Thursday morning.
Barring three Indian paramilitary personnel who were injured, all the other casualties in Thursday’s attack were Afghans. The dead included two police officers and 15 civilian visa seekers.
The deafening blast at 8.27 a.m. extensively damaged the embassy’s fortified outer wall and blew off windows and doors of the building. The injured Indians were from the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) deployed outside the mission.
The explosion, the fifth suicide strike in Kabul in two months, was heard across a large area. Scores of people outside the embassy fell bleeding and others ran for cover crying for help. It left a large crater in the ground outside the embassy.
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Tags: afghans, aftermath, border police, casualties, explosives, indian embassy, indo, kabul, New Delhi, nirupama, perpetrators, police officers, security arrangements, seekers, suicide attack, suicide bomber, taliban, thursday morning, tibetan border, windows and doors