Two Indians were killed in a missile attack launched by the Taliban on an Indian NGO’s office near a US airbase in Afghanistan’s Kunar province, a Pakistani newspaper reported Monday.
Qari Omar Haqqani, a spokesperson for the Afghan Taliban, told reporters it had attacked the office of the Indian NGO with missiles in which three people, including two Indian workers, were killed, the News International reported. The nationality of the third person killed is not known. The Taliban leader did not name the NGO.
Haqqani said the Taliban also fired missiles at the nearby United States airbase, injuring seven Afghan soldiers.
At least 10 missiles were fired at the two places, he said.
The Taliban had targeted Indian nationals earlier too. It had carried out suicide attacks at two hotels in Kabul on February 26 this year, killing at least nine Indians, including two Indian Army majors.
These hotels were rented by the Indian embassy for staffers and those involved in development work.
In October 2009, a Taliban suicide bomber blew up an explosives-laden car outside the Indian embassy in Kabul, killing 17 people and injuring over 80.
The embassy staff were, however, unhurt. In July 2008, a suicide attack on the embassy killed 41 people and injured over 140.
The dead included two Indian diplomats — political counsellor V. Venkateswara Rao and military attaché Brig. Ravi Datt Mehta — and two ITBP personnel. —IANS