KABUL (APP) - The 26 February suicide attacks, targeting a guest house and a hotel in a swanky neighborhood of Kabul, frequented by foreigners has sent the Indian military - security establishment in Afghanistan reeling with shock. Among seventeen victims of the attack were nine Indian nationals besides a noted film maker and an Italian diplomat, say media reports. A closer scrutiny of the casualties would reveal the rising Indian military profile in Afghanistan; four among those killed belonged to Indian Army and the Indian espionage agency - RAW.
The tally included two majors, a non-commissioned officer of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and an undercover RAW official of the secretary rank - Nitish Chibber - assigned to the Indian Embassy in Kandahar.
A major catastrophe was averted though; besides the four dead, eight army personnel of unspecified ranks were injured during the attack and were quickly evacuated by a IAF sortie to India.
The attack was the third in a series targeting the Indian military and intelligence assets in Afghanistan.
In July 2008 a suicide bomber killed more than 50 at the Indian embassy here including the defence attache. In Oct 2009 a bomb exploded outside the Indian Embassy killing 17 people; none of them embassy official. According to observers the Indian efforts to raise its military profile behind a facade of developmental work is politically unacceptable to majority of Afghans.
who see India advancing an agenda of its non-Pushtun allies in the Northern Alliance.
The rising Indian military profile is also viewed with suspicion in Afghanistan where foreign military presence has also elicited a violent backlash from the local population. Indian desire to land boots on the Afghans ground is fraught with high risk and unless they tone down their ambitions in Afghanistan, the Indian soldiers - and civilians will continue to bleed; opine observers.
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