http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/ju ... stan.india
Richard Norton-Taylor The Guardian, Tuesday July 8, 2008
Article history
Bomber rams car packed with explosives into two diplomatic vehicles entering Indian embassy in central Kabul
A suicide bomber yesterday drove a car full of explosives into the gates of the Indian embassy in Kabul, killing at least 41 people in what Afghan officials described as the deadliest attack since the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001.
The Afghan interior ministry immediately accused a "regional intelligence service" of coordinating the attack - an unmistakable reference to Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence, ISI, whose agents have been blamed before for being behind terrorist incidents in Afghanistan.
Yesterday's attack came at a time when the new Pakistan government has been making conciliatory noises towards India and negotiating agreements with some tribal leaders in areas where al-Qaida and other militant groups are based.
The dead included India's defence attache, a senior diplomat, and two security guards at the embassy. The bomb exploded as people were queuing for visas at the embassy and people shopped at a nearby market. About 140 people were injured by the blast.
The explosion destroyed two embassy vehicles, blew the embassy gates off, all but demolished the embassy walls, and badly damaged buildings inside the compound, Reuters news agency reported. Windows were shattered hundreds of metres away.
The bomber rammed a car into two Indian diplomatic vehicles as they entered the gates of the embassy, according to witnesses.
They said the blast scattered human body parts over a wide area.
"The Interior ministry believes this attack was carried out in coordination and consultation with an active intelligence service in the region," it said in a statement.
"With this cowardly attack the enemies of peace in Afghanistan wanted to hurt ongoing friendly relations of Afghanistan with the rest of the world, especially India," Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, said. "Such attacks will not hamper Afghanistan's relations with other nations."
Manmohan Singh, the Indian prime minister, said: "The loss of these precious Indian and Afghan lives in the service of their country must be condemned in the strongest terms possible.
"Those responsible, directly or indirectly, for this terrorist attack and for making this possible are no better than the worst criminals."
One Taliban spokesman denied responsibility for the attack, although he appeared to be contradicted by others. Pakistan denied Afghanistan's implied accusations that its agents helped to plan it, and said it condemned the attack.
Analysts said the attack reflected Pakistan's concern about India's close relations with Afghanistan. India is one of Afghanistan's leading donors.
"This latest attack is very likely to fuel tension not least because Pakistan blames Afghanistan for allowing India to expand its influence [there]", Dr Farzana Shaikh, an associate fellow of the thinktank Chatham House, told the Guardian. The attack would cast a pall over talks later this week between Pakistan and India, she said.
"The new Pakistani government is very keen to be seen to be reducing tension," she added. If there was evidence that militant groups based in Pakistan were behind yesterday's attack in Kabul it would set back that process, she said.
British military commanders argue that suicide and roadside bomb attacks are evidence that Taliban leaders in their conflict with foreign troops are on the back foot. They say that these kinds of attacks are against the code of the Pashtun tribes of southern Afghanistan, the Pashtunwali, and that Taliban commanders will lose credibility with the local population.
That may be wishful thinking. Taliban leaders have threatened to step up suicide bomb attacks against the Karzai government and in protest against the presence of about 60,000 foreign troops, including 34,000 Americans, in Afghanistan.
It is also clear, military and intelligence officials and independent analysts say, that hundreds of foreign fighters, including many Uzbeks and Chechens, are based in Pakistan's northern tribal areas importing al-Qaida tactics into Afghanistan. On April 27 Karzai was shot at shortly before an annual military parade.
Yesterday's bombing followed an attack on police officers in Islamabad, the Pakistan capital, on Sunday and an attack on the Danish embassy there last month.
Three more police officers have died from a suicide attack near Islamabad's Red Mosque, bringing the death toll to 18, a Pakistani official said yesterday, as investigations continued into who was behind the assault.
(Partnerships are meant to be two way dealings. And, the partner with more experience should lead!!!!! 
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