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Thursday, Apr 17, 2008
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Afghan Minister regrets killing of Indians in suicide attack

Staff Reporter

“We value sacrifice by Indians in rebuilding our country”

— Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

VICTIM OF VIOLENCE: The body of Chennepan Govinda Swamy of the Border Roads Organisation, killed in Afghanistan, being brought to the HAL Airport in Bangalore on Wednesday. The body will be taken to his village in Tamil Nadu for cremation.

KOCHI: Amirzai Sangin, Minister for Communications and Information Technology, Afghanistan, has regretted the killing of two Indians in a suicide bombing in his country’s southern province of Nimroz recently.

“We are very sorry [about the incident]. We have a history of very good relationship with India. We value the sacrifice being made by Indians in rebuilding our country and are thankful to them,” Mr. Sangin said. He was talking to reporters here on Wednesday on the sidelines of the 2nd Connecting Rural Communities Asia Forum.

Two personnel of the Border Roads Organisation were killed in a suicide attack on Saturday morning. They were working on a highway project when the vehicle-borne attacker blew himself up.

“We are known to be fighters. We didn’t have the culture of suicide bombing till recently. Even when we fought the Soviet forces there was not a single incident of suicide bombing,” he said.

Admitting that suicide bombing was a major security threat faced by Afghanistan, he said there were limitations to the security measures to check such attacks. “We cannot search everyone. They look just like us and move around normally,” he said.

The Minister, however, said the government has taken several security measures. Had it not been for these measures, the casualties involving Indians would have been far higher. Considering the large anumber of Indians, the casualties involving them had been limited, he said.

‘No ban on programmes’

Responding to reports of ban on Indian television programmes by the government, Mr. Sangin said there was no such move. In fact, Indian television programmes, including Hindi serials, being aired on Afghan channels were hugely popular.

“Tulsi and Kasauti (Zindagi Ki) are very popular with Afghan viewers,” he said. (Both are popular Hindi serials).

At least three Hindi serials were shown on television channels daily, he said.

Mr. Sangin, however, said recently there was a proposal from the Information Ministry of Afghanistan for restricting Indian programmes with the aim of promoting local content. This proposal was under consideration, he said.

He said Afghanistan already had collaboration with Indian companies in the telecom sector.

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