The Indian Consulate in eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad was attacked by a group of heavily armed terrorists on Wednesday.
The blast, believed to be a suicide attack, occurred around noon. After a fierce gunbattle, the security forces managed to eliminate all five terrorists who were involved in the attack. At least 19 persons, including some policemen and civilians, were also injured in the attack.
A bomb in a car driven by one of the terrorists was detonated near the Indian consulate, shattering doors and windows and destroying at least eight other cars, even as explosions and gunfire rocked the area, witnesses said.
“Their target was the Indian consulate, but our forces shot and killed them all before they reached their target,” said Attahullah Khugyani, a spokesman for the governor of Nangarhar province.
MEA spokesman Vikas Swarup said no consulate staff members were injured.The head of the public health department in Nangarhar said at least six people had been wounded in the attack.
Jalalabad is the capital of Nangarhar It faces an emerging threat from loyalists of the Islamic State group, which controls territory across Syria and Iraq and is making gradual inroads in Afghanistan — challenging the Taliban on their own turf.
On January 3, heavily-armed terrorists carried out an attack on the Indian mission in Mazar-e-Sharif which lasted for over 25 hours with all the attackers who attempted to storm the building getting killed by the Afghan security forces.
Soon after that also in January, Islamic State jihadists claimed responsibility for a deadly gun and bomb siege targeting the nearby Pakistani consulate in Jalalabad.
Afghan forces have killed four militants involved in the attack. However, an exact number of attackers was not immediately known.
The combing operation is on after the attackers were killed, sources said.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
