Hold off terrorists till reinforcements arrive at Consulate

Two alert constables of the Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) force thwarted an attempt by terrorists to storm the Indian Consulate building at Mazar-i-Sharif in Northern Afghanistan, which came under attack on Sunday night, a senior government official said.

The two terrorists were either injured or killed by the ITBP commandos as the jawans saw the bodies being dragged away by other members of the group.

Three bodies were recovered outside the Consulate on Monday, though an unknown number of terrorists engaged in a fierce gun battle with the Afghan forces till late on Monday night. “The role of the ITBP was to secure the premises when it was attacked during the night. Our men performed that duty quite well. Their morale is high and it is because of their alertness, the attack could be averted,” said Krishna Chowdhury, DG, ITBP.

Though the Ministry of External Affairs initially said the Consulate building could not have been the target, ground reports and analysis of the grenade fired from the rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) launcher establish that the terrorists wanted to attack the building. The RPG burst missed the Consulate but hit another building behind, which led the MEA to believe initially that they were not the target, a senior government official explained.

The first attempt to storm the Consulate was made at 9.15 p.m. on Sunday, when the terrorists fired thrice from the RPG. This alerted the ITBP commandos who stopped them at least 150 metres away from the main entrance.

More commandos joined in and they held fort for more than two-and-a-half hours till the Afghan National Police took over from them. Late on Monday night, the Afghan authorities declared that the gun battle had ended and all terrorists had been killed.