Jalalabad Indian consulate attacked

March 3, 2016 Hot from the Oven Valli Sarvani No comments

An attack by four suicide bombers on the Indian Consulate of Jalalabad has been stopped by Indian and Afghanistan security forces on March 2. This attack resulted in six people getting wounded. A car with a bomb has been blown up by one of the terrorists near the Indian consulate. The resulting explosion has shattered the doors and windows and ended up destroying eight other cars.

The witnesses stated that the entire area was rocked due to the explosions and gunfire. Attahullah Khugyani, a spokesman for the governor of Nangarhar province said that the aim of the terrorist attack was attacking the Indian consulate. However, the forces there have shot and killed them before they even reached the target.

Vikas Swarup, spokesman of MEA said that thankfully no member of the consulate staff has been injured. However, according to the head of the public health department in Nangarhar, there have been at least six people who got injured in the attack.

Due to the loyalists of the Islamic State group, Jalalabad has been facing increasing amount of threats from them. Jalalabad is the capital of Nangarhar and the Islamic State group is targeting it. The group has control over some territory across Syria and Iraq. From there, they are slowly going inroads in Afghanistan while challenging Taliban on their own turf.

So far, there has been no militant group claiming responsibility for the ongoing assault. Another Indian consulate in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif was also attacked by insurgents in January. That area has a lot of diplomatic missions that go through it and it faced numerous attacks recently.

The Islamic State jihadists claimed responsibility for a gun and bomb siege which targeted the nearby Pakistani consulate in Jalalabad. That was the first major attack by the group in an Afghan city.

Image Credit: Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay (Free for commercial use)