Pak military officers were involved in the attack on the Indian Consulate in Mazar-e-Sharif in which assailants attempted to storm the mission building.
It is learnt that the consulate in Mazar-e-Sharif will continue to operate through the local staff members.
External Affairs minister S Jaishankar in New York praised the leadership skills of Prime Minister Narendra Modi while recalling the attack on the Mazar-e-Sharif in Afghanistan near the Indian consulate and while India was coordinating evacuations from the country.
"We saw with our own eyes and I can say 99 per cent that those attackers were from Pakistani military and used special tactics while conducting their operation," Sayed Kamal Sadat, police chief of the Balkh province.
Haji Arafat said that the attempt by Desai to enter the Haji Ali Dargah is a conspiracy meant to disturb Mumbai's peaceful environment.
However, official sources in New Delhi said the reports suggested that the mission was not the target of the blast.
"Numerous rounds of talks have taken place with the Chinese counterparts to deescalate the situation without compromising on India's stand of 'complete disengagement and immediate restoration of status quo ante'," the defence ministry said.
A special aircraft of the Indian Air Force was sent on Saturday to bring back the Indian diplomats, officials and other staff members including a group of Indo-Tibetan Border Police personnel.
Amid intelligence inputs that its interests in Afghanistan may be targetted by Taliban and other terror groups in the wake of the killing of Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, India has tightened security at its missions and other establishments.
The decision is significant as India has decided to reduce the tenure of its diplomats and other staff in Islamabad from three to two years because of security considerations. The government has decided to extend the tenure of diplomats and other staff of these Consulates from 18 months to two years, officials sources said.
Supporters of Uzbek leader General Abdurrashid Dostum and Tajik General Attah Mohammad had clashed in the fiercest battle in the past two years.
Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh on Friday reviewed the security situation for the Indian consulate in Afghanistan's Herat which was attacked last week.
Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh on Saturday met Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the two presidential candidates here during which she was assured that Afghanistan was committed to ensuring full safety for the Indian Embassy in Kabul, four consulates and interests irrespective of the orientation of the new leadership.
'Trump's new discovery is that Pakistan and its army are virtually god's gift to mankind.' 'They are required to facilitate a relatively orderly American exit from Afghanistan,' points out Ambassador G Parthasarathy, who served as India's high commissioner to Pakistan.
'When I stepped on Indian soil, I lay down on the ground and kissed my homeland.'
From now on, the Taliban will be responsible for the "honour, wealth and preservation" of Afghanistan's people, Ghani said.
'The Afghans used to say that if there is any person whose name should be taken after Allah, it is Hindustani.'
Additional Afghan forces have been deployed around the Indian consulate which was attacked on Wednesday in Jalalabad city of Afghanistan by heavily-armed terrorists including suicide bombers.
Beyond the barbed wire and watchtowers, though, lies a story that casts more than a little doubt on whether this dream will ever be realised. Praveen Swami reports.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar briefed the leaders on the latest situation in Afghanistan after the Taliban captured power there last week.
The Afghan tradition of gaining control of areas does not necessarily involve combat. Most engagements are settled through negotiations and pay-offs before battle is joined. This style of fighting is peculiar to Afghanistan, explains Ajai Shukla, who witnessed such a transaction between the Taliban and the Northern Alliance in November 2001.
All Indians in the mission are safe, said MEA.
Defence sources said that the firing at the air force base in Punjab ceased on Tuesday morning after the attack that began in the wee hours on Saturday.
Raising questions over the role of Pakistan's powerful military in the Pathankot terror attack, a former ambassador to India has said that the army does not appreciate Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's attempts to decide on the country's policy towards India.
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The US has the distinction of destroying a flawed but functioning State thrice since 1979. Pakistan has been their constant accomplice, explains Shekhar Gupta.
An intense 25-hour gun-battle between security forces and terrorists outside the Indian consulate in Mazar-e-Sharif came to end on Monday night with the killing of all the attackers who attempted to storm the Mission building.
Niranjan's lungs got punctured due to the impact of the blast of a grenade that was kept in the pocket of a slain terrorist and the officer died before being taken to hospital.
Security Expert Bruce Riedel, who in an interview with rediff.com shortly after the Pathankot terror attacks began said that the attack underscored the determination of jihadist groups in Pakistan to sabotage any attempt at detente with India, writes in the Daily Beast that despite the US putting the Jaish-e-Mohammad on the terrorist sanctions list years ago, the outfit continues to coddle the Pakistani army.
Given the magnitude of the operation of the air base, the operation will continue to be concluded till we are able to fully render the base safe.
All the four gunmen, who had stormed the Indian consulate in Afghanistan's Herat province early on Friday, have been gunned down, Indo-Tibetan Border Police chief Subhas Goswami said.
India will decide on going ahead with the foreign secretary-level talks with Pakistan only after operations to flush out terrorists from the IAF base at Pathankot is over.
'There is a consensus within the Indian security establishment -- at least among those who draw their conclusions from data instead of speaking from nationalist sentiment -- that India lacks the offensive capability to defeat Pakistan in a short war.'
Friday's incident at Herat has dampened somewhat the spirit behind the invitation. It reminds Modi much before he officially becomes prime minister, of the challenge that awaits his government, says Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com
Civilian and military security forces deployed in Balochistan have done little to investigate attacks on Hazara or take steps to prevent the next attack, says a Human Rights Watch report.
'It was a mission undertaken in darkness in every sense -- literally, because Afghanistan had no electricity at that time; and, metaphorically because Delhi historically dealt only with the Pashtuns of Afghanistan and the foreign ministry's vast archives had nothing to offer on the culture and politics of the northern tribes in the Hindu Kush.'
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