World | India
Krishna hints at Lashkar connection to Kabul attack
S.M. Krishna says India has not been squeezed out of Afghanistan
- IANS
- Published: 00:00 March 22, 2010
New Delhi : External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna has said that Indian aid workers in Afghanistan are becoming soft targets for terrorists.
During a TV programme yesterday, he indicated that the February 26 attack in Kabul that killed seven Indians was the work of Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).
Denying that India was being marginalised in the emerging US strategy in Afghanistan, Krishna said that the US had never asked New Delhi "directly or indirectly" to reduce its presence in the violence-torn country.
"We have absolutely no evidence otherwise. I think it has been the handiwork of those forces who are out to see that the relationship between India and Afghanistan is jeopardised," Krishna told Karan Thapar in The Devil's Advocate programme aired on CNN-IBN last night.
He was replying to a question on whether the February 26 attack on Indians was the work of LeT. "It is for everyone to see that the network that you find operating from the soil of Pakistan — the Lashkar-e-Taiba, the other terrorist outfits and all — they are fused both ideologically and operationally," he said.
"They cannot come to any other conclusion other than to accept that it was the handiwork of these terrorist organisations," Krishna said, when asked if the US has accepted that the Kabul attack was perpetrated by LeT.
Krishna stressed that Indians involved in the reconstruction in Kabul have become "soft targets" for terrorists.
The minister added that there was a warning that Indian missions and volunteers on humanitarian work in the war-torn country "are going to be under attack because what India has been doing in Afghanistan is the visible symbol of what India intends to do in building up Afghanistan.
"The Indians who have gone there on humanitarian purposes are unarmed. So, naturally they become easy targets, soft targets," Krishna said.
Besides steps initiated by Kabul to protect Indians in Afghanistan, the Indian government was taking some additional measures, he said.
"I am sure that America is appreciative of the role that India is playing in Afghanistan as much as the people of Afghanistan themselves are appreciative of the role that India is playing in Afghanistan," he said.
"I do not think India has been squeezed out," he said, when asked about media reports that suggested that India was being left out of the loop on Afghanistan.
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