The Hindu : National : June 26 RAW alert helped mitigate loss of lives in Kabul

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June 26 RAW alert helped mitigate loss of lives in Kabul

Praveen Swami

NEW DELHI: Warnings issued by the Research and Analysis Wing helped to mitigate the loss of lives in Monday’s terrorist attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul, highly-placed government sources told The Hindu.

In an alert issued on June 26, RAW’s Afghanistan desk warned that an attack on the embassy was imminent. The alert said the attack would most likely be executed in the first week of July, using a white Toyota sports utility vehicle. RAW also said terrorists were considering strikes on Indian assets elsewhere in Afghanistan, including the consulate in Mazhar-e-Sharif.

Government sources in New Delhi said RAW’s alerts were based on communications intelligence and source reports on the activities of a Pakistan-based jihadist cell with close links to the Lahore-based Lashkar-e-Taiba. However, the sources declined to give further details of the affiliation, composition or objectives of the cell.

RAW’s warnings were passed on to the Ministry of External Affairs, as well as the Intelligence Bureau, which liaises with foreign police forces to ensure the security of Indian missions. As a result, blast-protection dirt walls were built around the Embassy to guard it from attack. Crash-proof barriers were also installed at the main gate of the mission, which is located on an arterial road open to traffic.

Investigators believe scouts for the terrorist assault team would have learned that all vehicles, barring that of Ambassador Jayant Prasad, who travels in a heavily-guarded convoy, were halted by Indo-Tibetan Border Police guards at the Embassy’s crash barrier. After establishing the identity of the passengers and searching the vehicle for explosives, the guards signalled for the gate to be opened and the barriers inside lifted.

On the morning of the attack, though, ITBP guards Ajai Pathania and Roop Singh delayed opening the gate for counsellor Venkateswara Rao and defence attaché Brigadier RD Mehta after noticing that their cars were being trailed by a white Toyota car they had already been told to watch out for.

While the terrorist attack claimed the lives of four Indian nationals and at least 37 Afghans, a police source linked to the investigation said the loss of lives would have been a large multiple of this number had the car penetrated the embassy compound.

Pakistan links

Indian intelligence claims that a Pakistan-based terror group could have provided logistics support for the Kabul attack reinforce allegations made by the Afghanistan government that the Inter Services Intelligence Directorate was involved in the bombing.

United States Defence Secretary Robert Gates has rebutted the Afghan government’s charges. I haven’t seen any evidence or proof that foreign agents were involved, he told reporters in Washington, D.C. on Thursday.

However, evidence of the ISI’s role in the resurgence of terrorism in Afghanistan has been mounting. According to a recent RAND Corporation report, North Atlantic Treaty Organisation officials uncovered instances in which ISI operatives provided intelligence to Taliban insurgents at the tactical, operational, and strategic levels.

This included tipping off Taliban forces about the location and movement of Afghan and coalition forces, which undermined several U.S. and NATO anti-Taliban military operations.

RAND’s report asserts that active and former Pakistan government officials from organisations such as the ISI and Frontier Corps provided logistics support to the Taliban and helped to secure medical care for wounded insurgents in cities such as Quetta. They also helped to train the Taliban and other insurgents destined for Afghanistan and Kashmir in Quetta, Mansehra, Shamshattu, Parachinar and other areas in Pakistan.

Linkages like these are not new. On Wednesday, the London-based The Times reported that a Taliban terrorist killed in Helmand last summer turned out be carrying ISI identification papers. When British officials confronted the Pakistan government, The Times reported, they were told the man was on leave at the time of his death.

Islamist terror groups based in Pakistan — many with close links to al-Qaeda and the Taliban — have been intensely critical of India’s presence. As first reported in this newspaper on Wednesday, organisations such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba have said that India’s presence in Afghanistan poses an existential threat to Afghanistan.

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