Days after India highlighted the threat to regional peace posed by terror groups operating from Afghanistan at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), a suicide bombing outside the Russian Embassy in the Afghan capital Kabul on Monday killed two diplomats and one Afghan civilian.
Even though there is no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast, India believes it is an act of terror perpetrated by one of the outfits that are operating from Afghan soil with the Taliban rulers just a mute-spectators. “The suicide attack on a foreign diplomatic mission in Afghanistan has confirmed the fears that India highlighted at the UNSC only last Monday. As the Russian embassy has been targeted like this, the international community needs to keep its focus on the functioning of the Taliban set-up and on the increase of presence of terror organisations in Afghanistan that India has been underlining for long time now,” diplomatic sources told The Daily Guardian.
Sources further said that the global community has appreciated India’s consistent efforts to share with it the solid inputs on the threat of terrorism from Afghanistan, which a series of bombings there over the past few months have lent credence to. The international community believes that the inputs shared by India have turned out to be true, given the growing terror attacks in Afghanistan.
According to sources, a high-level meeting was held at South Block to review the security of Indian embassy in Kabul following the suicide bombing on the Russian embassy. “Diplomats have spoken to their Russian counterparts to have a first-hand information on the attack,” sources said, adding that Russia is not ruling out the possibility of involvement Islamic State in the bombing.
Meanwhile, those responsible for security of the foreign missions in Kabul have been asked through diplomatic channels to beef up security of Indian embassy in Kabul, sources said.
That the blast went off at the entrance to the embassy’s consular section is serious matter that the entire international community needs to take note of, sources said. The Russian Foreign Ministry said that a Russian diplomat had emerged from the building to call out the names of the candidates for visas when the explosion occurred. This blast is the latest in a series of bombings and other attacks since the Taliban seized power a year. This incident has worried India for the security and safety of its staff in the embassy in Kabul, sources said. The world community must hold the Taliban accountable for the bombing which targeted a foreign diplomatic mission under their rule, say officials.
Only a few days ago, India’s envoy to the UN, Ruchira Kamboj had highlighted at the UNSC the threat to regional peace posed by terror groups operating from Afghanistan including Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and Islamic State (IS), and called for stronger action by the Taliban set-up to deliver on counter terrorism commitments. There has been a significance increase in the presence of the Islamic State-Khorasan Province in Afghanistan and its capacity to carry out attacks, and linkages between groups listed by the UN Security Council such as LeT and JeM pose a direct threat to the peace and stability of the region, Kamboj had told a security council meeting on Afghanistan.
The Indian envoy also said that the recent findings of the 1988 Sanctions Committee’s sanctions monitoring team indicate that the current authorities in Afghanistan need to take much stronger action to fulfill their anti-terrorism commitments.
A series of attack on religious places of minority communities, including the recent attack on a Sikh gurudwara in Kabul on June 18 followed by another bomb blast near the same shrine on July 27 is hugely alarming. India wants Taliban to ensure that territory of Afghanistan is not used to launch terrorist attacks against other countries, and they should fulfil their commitments on combating terrorism.