'Lashkar wanted hostage drama at Herat during Modi's swearing-in'
Foreign secretary Sujatha Singh said Modi reaffirmed India's commitment to helping Afghanistan achieve stability.
NEW DELHI: Three hours before Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif Tuesday afternoon, Afghan president Hamid Karzai is learnt to have laid out, in chilling detail, Pak-bred Lashkar-e-Taiba's plan to take Indian officials hostage at the Herat consulate days before the swearing-in ceremony.
Speaking to The Times of India, Afghanistan's ambassador Shaida Abdali said, "LeT attackers actually wanted to take over the consulate so that during Mr Modi's swearing-in, a dangerous and embarrassing hostage situation would have played out, placing the new government in a very difficult position."
Although no terror group has yet claimed credit, Karzai is on record saying that the LeT, headed by Hafiz Saeed, was responsible for the Herat attack. "According to information given to us by a key western intelligence agency, the perpetrators of the Herat attack belong to the LeT," he said.
Asked which agency Karzai was referring to, Abdali said, "We can't take the name, but we can say it's a leading western agency." The US has the biggest intelligence assets in Afghanistan. In 2008, US intercepted calls between the suicide bomber who rammed his vehicle into the Indian embassy in Kabul and his handlers in Peshawar.
Foreign secretary Sujatha Singh confirmed that the Herat attack was discussed between Modi and Karzai, but did not say if LeT's alleged involvement came up in the subsequent meeting between the Indian and Pak PMs.
(Afghan security forces gather around the body of a Taliban insurgent on the rooftop of a residential building, after an attack on the Indian consulate in Herat province.)
The attack was repulsed by Indian ITBP forces and Afghan security forces. TOI had reported on the day of the attack (last Friday) that the four gunmen were carrying enough supplies to suggest that they had planned for a hostage scenario.
Today, in his conversation with Karzai, Modi thanked them for their service and assistance to India. (He had tweeted his gratitude on the day of the attack.)
Abdali said the investigation was looking at various aspects, such as the planners and recruiters, and whether they had the approval, tacit or otherwise, of the ISI. There is no confirmation so far of whether the attackers were Afghan or Pakistani.
Sujatha Singh said Modi reaffirmed India's commitment to helping Afghanistan achieve stability. "We want the reconciliation process to be Afghan-owned, Afghan-led and Afghan-controlled," Sujatha Singh told the media. The Herat attack, she said, "has only strengthened our resolve to work together with Afghanistan".
