home
Afghanistan has boldly stepped up where even India has been discreet in treading, bluntly accusing the Pakistani intelligence agency ISI of masterminding the latest bombing of the Indian Embassy in Kabul which killed 17 people. “Yes, we do,” Afghan Ambassador to the US Said Jawad told the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in an interview here when asked if he was pointing the figure at Pakistan for the suicide bombing that took place on Thursday. “We are pointing the finger at the Pakistan intelligence agency, based on the evidence on the ground and similar attack taking place in Afghanistan,” Jawad said. He did not elaborate on the evidence.
Jawad was following up similar charges from Afghan officials in Kabul, who were quick to identify Pakistani intelligence as the mastermind even though India’s foreign secretary Nirupama Rao was initially circumspect in suggesting that New Delhi would let the investigations take its course before reaching any conclusion. The previous attack referred to by Jawad and other Afghan officials was the bombing of the Indian Embassy in July 2008, which US officials disclosed was conducted by the ISI-backed Haqqani network. That network was heard being described by Pakistan’s army chief Pervez Ashfaq Kiyani as Islamabad’s “strategic asset” in intelligence intercepts, result in the suspicion in Washington and New Delhi that Pakistani’s military-intelligence apparatus masterminded the attack on the embassy. That attack killed 58 people, including a popular young Indian diplomat and a senior military attaché.
On Saturday though, India’s Nirupama Rao also stepped up to the plate, saying Thursday’s embassy attack was the handiwork of the enemies of India-Afghan friendship and their “patrons across the border,” but not directly naming Pakistan.
