The Indian embassy is helping to bring back the bodies of three Indians, who were killed in a Taliban suicide attack on the housing compound of a private supplier to international forces in Kabul on Tuesday morning.
On Wednesday, the ministry of external affairs spokesperson identified the three Indians as Sandeep Gilaji, Naveen Kumar Gurudi and Kaushik Chakrabarty.
Both Gilaji and Gurudi were from Andhra Pradesh, with the former working as a waiter, while the latter was a front office manager. The third Indian, Kaushik Chakrabarty from West Bengal, was working as a laundry manager with the private contractor.
The attack took place in the early hours of Tuesday, when a large truck filled with explosive material was driven to the compound, by a couple of Taliban terrorists.
Ten people died in the attack, but there had been an initial confusion on identifying the Indians who had been first mistakenly identified as Nepalese nationals.
“They were among more than 50 Indians working through a contractor there, providing services in the housing compound,” said external affairs ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin. The rest, he added, “are safe but obviously shocked by the attack”.
“We are in touch with the employer to complete the legal and medical formalities before sending the bodies to India,” said the MEA spokesperson.
The others who died in the attack were Scottish security contractor, four Nepali guards and two Afghan drivers.
This attack comes after as the planned reconciliation talks with Taliban remains in limbo, with the Karzai government still not totally happy at the optics of the opening of the political office in Doha last month.
At the ASEAN regional forum meeting in Brunei on Wednesday, external affairs minister Salman Khurshid said that India supported the efforts of Karzai government to have a dialogue with all armed groups, including Taliban, “willing to give up their arms and subscribe to the Constitution”.
This was reiterated by the foreign ministry spokesperson, who pointed that India has “repeatedly said that we would welcome any efforts towards reconciliation and this reconciliation should include all Afghan parties, it should be Afghan led and Afghan controlled.”