Taliban kill 3 Indians in Kabul

Three Indian workers were killed in Tuesday’s Taliban attack on a guesthouse in Kabul, Indian media quoting officials reported on Wednesday.
Top Indian government officials confirmed to NDTV that the Indians killed worked at a Dubai-based company’s guesthouse.
The company’s officials who also live in the guesthouse supplied to NATO forces in Kabul. Indian officials are now in the process of informing the families before letting out any more details. The legal and other formalities to transport the bodies back to India are being finalised. NDTV’s sources stress the attack was not targeted at Indians but at the foreign company and its links to supplying NATO.
The attack in Kabul’s Pul-e-Charkhi area early on Tuesday morning followed the familiar Taliban modus operandi. A vehicle packed with explosives was detonated at the back wall of the compound. At least two attackers entered the breached wall firing their weapons. Most compounds in Kabul have a bunker for times like these and so did this guesthouse. Sources tell NDTV the three Indians didn’t make it to the bunker in time. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, but the group’s spokesman is yet to reply to NDTV on the Indian deaths. All attackers were killed by security forces.
There are about 3,500 Indians working in Afghanistan, but those killed were not registered at the embassy. That explains the delay in information getting out that Indians had been killed.
Earlier, reports named four Nepali and one Afghan guard as well as a British and Romanian national as having being killed.
In July 2008, two senior diplomats, Political Counsellor Venkateswara Rao and Defence Attache Brigadier RD Mehta and two ITBP personnel Ajai Pathaniya and Roop Singh were killed in a suicide attack on the embassy. Over 60 Afghans were also killed.
In February 2010, the Taliban killed nine Indians, including two Indian Army doctors, and injured five other officers.
The Taliban have been increasing their attacks this year in the run-up to foreign combat troops being withdrawn at the end of 2014.
Presidential elections are also scheduled for 2014. Attacks have also been mounting while proposed talks with the militant group in Qatar are stalled by President Karzai.