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BBC News - Indians nervous after Kabul attacks
These days, the once thriving outpatient clinic at Afghanistan's leading hospital in the capital, Kabul, is shut - and the doctors are away.
A dozen Indian doctors and paramedics who run the clinic at the Indira Gandhi Institute of Child Health have also left, leaving the patients in the lurch.
They were shaken after a suicide attack in the city last month killed one of their own - a young doctor from India's north-eastern state of Manipur.
Seventeen people were killed in the 26 February attack on a number of guest houses in the Shar-i-Naw area. Seven of them, including the doctor, were Indians.
Cutting back
The doctors are not the only ones who have left Kabul after the latest attack, which many believe targeted Indians.
An Indian company setting up mobile phone networks has decided to cut its Indian staff to 30 employees from 50 before the attacks.
"We will cut back on Indian employees and employ more locals," says Murali Shankar, who heads the Afghan operations of the firm. The firm already employs 50 Afghan employees.
The latest attack in Kabul has shaken the 3,500-odd Indians working in Afghanistan. They are mostly working on government-funded infrastructure and humanitarian projects.
India is one of Afghanistan's largest donors - it has pledged $1.3bn in development assistance.
Analysts say that India's arch-rival Pakistan is uneasy with its neighbour's expanding influence and reach.
Reports in India have blamed Pakistan-based groups of being behind two attacks on the Indian embassy in Kabul over the past two years and the 26 February attacks. Pakistan has denied such reports.
Indian workers confess that they are shaken by the attacks, especially the most recent ones.
"I get very scared every time there is a blast or an attack. I heard that the blast in February targeted Indians. Now I don't go out at all, nor do I speak to many locals," says Robin Ghosh, who works as a waiter in a Kabul curry house.
Mr Ghosh says he came to Kabul to work because the pay is much better - he earns $250 a month here, more than double what he earns at home.
Afghan concerns
He may be staying on to help keep the curry house running, but the departure of Indian doctors - authorities say it is a temporary measure - has hit Kabul's hospital hard.
The doctors treated some 250 patients every day at the out-patient department, many of them suffering from terminal diseases.
"Angry patients ask us why the Indian doctors have left," says Dr Noorulhaq Yousafzai, chief of the hospital.
"Their treatment and medicines were free of cost as they were funded by the Indian government - the same medicines are either unavailable or very expensive here," he says.
Embassy officials hope the doctors will return in a month's time.
"We are just waiting for an adequate number of volunteers," an official said.
The deserted outpatient department of Kabul hospital
They also dismiss a rash of media reports suggesting that India is scaling down its presence in Afghanistan.
Security has been tightened in places where Indians live and work, officials say.
India has already built a 218km (135-mile) road linking the south-western border town of Zaranj with the town of Delaram and completed work on a 200km (124-mile) electricity line from Uzbekistan to Kabul.
Indians are also building the new Afghan parliament in Kabul and the Salma dam in Herat province.
"There are no plans on reducing or downsizing our staff strength or our assistance programmes," an embassy official said
These days, the once thriving outpatient clinic at Afghanistan's leading hospital in the capital, Kabul, is shut - and the doctors are away.
A dozen Indian doctors and paramedics who run the clinic at the Indira Gandhi Institute of Child Health have also left, leaving the patients in the lurch.
They were shaken after a suicide attack in the city last month killed one of their own - a young doctor from India's north-eastern state of Manipur.
Seventeen people were killed in the 26 February attack on a number of guest houses in the Shar-i-Naw area. Seven of them, including the doctor, were Indians.
Cutting back
The doctors are not the only ones who have left Kabul after the latest attack, which many believe targeted Indians.
An Indian company setting up mobile phone networks has decided to cut its Indian staff to 30 employees from 50 before the attacks.
"We will cut back on Indian employees and employ more locals," says Murali Shankar, who heads the Afghan operations of the firm. The firm already employs 50 Afghan employees.
The latest attack in Kabul has shaken the 3,500-odd Indians working in Afghanistan. They are mostly working on government-funded infrastructure and humanitarian projects.
India is one of Afghanistan's largest donors - it has pledged $1.3bn in development assistance.
Analysts say that India's arch-rival Pakistan is uneasy with its neighbour's expanding influence and reach.
Reports in India have blamed Pakistan-based groups of being behind two attacks on the Indian embassy in Kabul over the past two years and the 26 February attacks. Pakistan has denied such reports.
Indian workers confess that they are shaken by the attacks, especially the most recent ones.
"I get very scared every time there is a blast or an attack. I heard that the blast in February targeted Indians. Now I don't go out at all, nor do I speak to many locals," says Robin Ghosh, who works as a waiter in a Kabul curry house.
Mr Ghosh says he came to Kabul to work because the pay is much better - he earns $250 a month here, more than double what he earns at home.
Afghan concerns
He may be staying on to help keep the curry house running, but the departure of Indian doctors - authorities say it is a temporary measure - has hit Kabul's hospital hard.
The doctors treated some 250 patients every day at the out-patient department, many of them suffering from terminal diseases.
"Angry patients ask us why the Indian doctors have left," says Dr Noorulhaq Yousafzai, chief of the hospital.
"Their treatment and medicines were free of cost as they were funded by the Indian government - the same medicines are either unavailable or very expensive here," he says.
Embassy officials hope the doctors will return in a month's time.
"We are just waiting for an adequate number of volunteers," an official said.
The deserted outpatient department of Kabul hospital
They also dismiss a rash of media reports suggesting that India is scaling down its presence in Afghanistan.
Security has been tightened in places where Indians live and work, officials say.
India has already built a 218km (135-mile) road linking the south-western border town of Zaranj with the town of Delaram and completed work on a 200km (124-mile) electricity line from Uzbekistan to Kabul.
Indians are also building the new Afghan parliament in Kabul and the Salma dam in Herat province.
"There are no plans on reducing or downsizing our staff strength or our assistance programmes," an embassy official said