Another blast near Indian consulate in Afghan city
EXPLOSIVES WERE PLACED IN GARBAGE CAN BUT OFFICIAL SAYS MISSION WAS NOT THE TARGET
Asmall bomb exploded near the Indian consulate in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad yesterday, authorities said, after a series of attacks on Indian installations in the region.
The blast, which came the morning after a gun and bomb siege near the Indian consulate in a northern Afghan city, was some 200 metres from the consulate in Jalalabad, an Indian diplomatic source there said. There were no reported injuries at the scene.
The explosion also follows a bloody weekend assault on an airbase in India near the Pakistan border.
But Vikas Swarup, a spokesman for India’s ministry of external affairs, said the consulate “was not the target”.
The area also houses the consulates for Pakistan and Iran.
Ataullah Khogyani, a spokesman for Nangarhar province’s governor, said authorities were unsure who the target was but that a police convoy had been passing when the blast went off.
“The explosives were placed in a garbage can,” he added.
The attack was not immediately claimed but Indian interests have been targeted twice since Saturday in spectacular assaults, one against its consulate in Mazar-i-Sharif, and the other by Islamist insurgents on an air force base in the northern Indian state of Punjab.
Responsibility
Seven soldiers were confirmed killed in the raid on the Pathankot base, claimed by the United Jihad Council, a conglomerate of Pakistani proxy Islamist groups fighting in Indian-controlled Kashmir.
No one has yet claimed responsibility for the 25-hour siege in Mazar-i-Sharif that ended late on Monday.
The spike in violence came roughly a week after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid a surprise visit to Pakistan followed by a whirlwind tour of Kabul.
India has been a key supporter of Kabul’s post-Taliban government, and analysts have often pointed to the threat of a “proxy war” in Afghanistan between India and Pakistan.
The Taliban have also stepped up attacks on government and foreign targets in Afghanistan, including a series of assaults in Kabul over the weekend, underscoring a worsening security situation.