Rocket lands inside Indian Embassy in Kabul, no casualties

NEW DELHI: The residential compound of India’s ambassador in Kabul was hit by a rocket on Tuesday, as representatives of 27 countries, including India, attended a reconciliation meeting nearby inaugurated by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.

Officials said the rocket exploded on the tennis court in the compound and that the ambassador, Manpreet Vohra, and his staff were safe. The ambassador’s residence, known as India House, is a fortified compound and is close to several embassies and NATO’s ‘Resolute Support’ headquarters.

Tuesday’s incident took place at a time when Kabul is under a security blanket for The Kabul Process Peace and Security Conference, which is being attended by top officials of 27 countries, including India, and international organisations.

The attack came days before the June 8-9 SCO Summit in the Kazak capital of Astana where the situation in Afghanistan will be a key topic of discussion. Inaugurating the conference in Kabul, Ghani said more than 150 people were now known to have been killed in last Wednesday’s sewage tanker bombing in the Afghan capital.

This is more than double the earlier estimated official death toll, which makes the attack the bloodiest in Kabul since the Taliban was overthrown in 2001.

Last week’s attack was at the German embassy’s gate, close to the Indian embassy compound, and came a day after the Afghan situation was discussed threadbare by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Tuesday’s rocket-propelled attack was at the Indian ambassador’s residential compound, which is separate and some distance away from the Indian embassy.

Earlier, the Indian embassy had come under attack in 2008 and 2009, which resulted in the killing of diplomats. The Afghan situation was a common theme on the agenda of Modi’s four-nation trip last week.