The Hindu : Front Page : Two Indians killed in Afghan suicide attack

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Sunday, Apr 13, 2008
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Two Indians killed in Afghan suicide attack

Sandeep Dikshit

They were working on road project

Taliban claims responsibility
India will not pull out of highway project

NEW DELHI: Two Border Roads Organisation (BRO) personnel were killed and five others injured in a suicide-bomber attack in Afghanistan’s Nimroz province on Saturday morning.

The BRO team was working on a highway project, when the vehicle-borne attacker struck, the Foreign Office said here.

Despite the deaths, the government said it was determined to complete the project in one of the most infrastructure-deprived areas of Afghanistan. India would not pull out of the project, which was aimed at the rehabilitation and reconstruction of Afghanistan, it said.

The External Affairs Ministry has identified the dead as M.P. Singh and C. Govindaswamy. The injured are Bishram Oroan, Vikram Singh, Muhammad Nazin Khan, Anil Kumar Thampee and Mayaram. Two Afghan project personnel were also wounded. The injured have been moved to Zaranj (starting point of the road project) for medical attention. Arrangements are being made for evacuation of the dead and the wounded, a ministry note said.

An report from Heart in Afghanistan claimed that the Taliban had accepted responsibility for the attack, but there was no official confirmation here.

The Taliban is demanding the departure of all Indian personnel.

Army sources here said additional security personnel were flown to Afghanistan after the December 2005 kidnapping and killing of BRO driver M.R. Kutty. Earlier this year, a suicide attack claimed the lives of two soldiers of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police. But there was little the security cordon could do to thwart a determined suicide attacker as the Army found during a particularly violent phase in Jammu and Kashmir some years ago, they pointed out.

Besides a strong ITBP contingent, locally recruited Afghans provide protection to the 400 BRO personnel constructing a road from near the Iran border in southwest Afghanistan to the garland road connecting all major cities of Afghanistan.

The Zaranj-Delaram highway project is part of the $ 750-million assistance committed by India for reconstruction of Afghanistan. With Pakistan denying India direct road access to Afghanistan, the highway could evolve into a gateway from India to Central Asia via the Iranian port of Chabar.

New Delhi has approached Iran for permission to develop the port, from where it would like to lay a road or provide a rail link to the starting point of the road.

The government condoled with the deaths and said the victims were working on an “aid and humanitarian project.” It was contacting the families of the dead and the wounded. Compensation and insurance would be disbursed immediately.

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