New York: A week before the Indian embassy was bombed in Kabul in July 2008, Polish intelligence had warned that the Taliban might attack the building.
This has emerged from a document among the 92,000 leaked intelligence reports that suggested that the war in Afghanistan is going badly for the US, and Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) is fuelling the insurgency in the war-torn country.
The information leaked by the organisation Wikileaks was published in The New York Times, British daily newspaper Guardian, and German weekly Der Spiegel.
The document dealing with the Indian embassy is titled 'Threat Report... Threat to Indian Embassy.' The date of information is June 30, 2008, while the date of report is July 1, 2008. The organisation involved is "Taliban Center" and the Report number is 75010708.
"Taliban are planning to carry out an attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul. TB (Taliban) designated an engineer -- to take this action," the document reads.
"He intends to use stolen ANA/ANP (Afghan National Army/ Afghan National Police) car, and wears stolen uniform. He speaks Dari with distinct Iranian accent. Allegedly, he is the owner of a -- company," it added.
A suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden car into the heavily fortified Indian embassy gates in Kabul on July 7, 2008, killing 58 people and wounding more than 140. Defence attache Brigadier R D Mehta and Counsellor Venkateswara Rao were killed when the suicide bomber targeted the embassy during the morning rush hour.
"INS (Insurgents) are planning to divide into two groups: first will attack Indian embassy building, whilst the second group will engage security posts in front of MOI (Ministry of Interior), IOT (In Order to) give possibility to escape attackers from the first group," the report said.
"Budget for this action is about $ 1,20,000. The main goal of this operation is to show TB's (Taliban) abilities to carry out attack on every object in Kabul."
Other documents strongly indicate that Pakistan's ISI is supporting the insurgency in Afghanistan, as well as plotting with Taliban leaders to assassinate Afghan leaders.
The New York Times pointed out that it has been difficult for the US to pin Pakistan's spy agency directly to an attack orchestrated by the Taliban. But the assault on the Indian embassy led the CIA's then deputy director Stephen R Kappes to immediately go to Islamabad to confront the ISI with evidence that it had helped organise the attack.
Comments
0 comment