Two bombs exploded outside the Indian Consulate in Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan on Thursday but no one was injured in the incident, official sources said in New Delhi.
Two improvised explosive devices, lobbed at the Consulate in Jalalabad city on Thursday night, exploded outside the mission, the sources said. Some unidentified persons, suspected to be Taliban militia, threw the IEDs at the consulate, they said. All the staffers at the Indian Mission are safe and there was no damage to the consulate building either, they said.
Local police have launched an investigation into the blast, the sources said, adding that no group has yet claimed responsibility for the act.
India had re-opened its embassy and four consulates in Afghanistan following the ouster of the Taliban regime in 2001.
India has been active in reconstruction efforts in the war-ravaged country since the installation of the Hamid Karzai government. The Union Cabinet on Thursday sanctioned Rs 746.69 crore to speed up the reconstruction of the Delaram-Zarganj road being undertaken by the Border Roads Organisation. The construction of the road, from Delaram to Zarganj, would help Afghanistan to provide communication facility in a remote part of the country.
The road will also give India improved access into Afghanistan and Central Asia and also open an alternate route for Afghanistan to an Iranian seaport and reduce its dependence on Pakistan.
