India has decided to enhance the security cover of its Embassy and consulates in Afghanistan by sanctioning deployment of 79 more ITBP commandos to guard the facilities in capital Kabul and elsewhere.
The new measure has been taken in the backdrop of the August 3 suicide bomb attack near the main consulate complex in Jalalabad which killed 12 civilians.
The upgrade in the security manpower--from the existing 219 commando trained troops of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP)-- comes in the background of threats of possible terror attacks on Indian diplomats and other assets in Afghanistan.
"We are deploying a fresh contingent of our boys for security duties at all vital Indian facilities in Afghanistan," ITBP chief Ajay Chadha said.
Sources said security agencies have gone through intelligence inputs that suggest that apart from al Qaeda and Pakistan-based Haqqani network, the threat to Indian assets in Afghanistan also emanates from smaller militant groups based in Pakistan.
A security and threat analysis conducted sometime ago formed the basis of this new deployment, sources said.
The deployment will cater not only to the main Embassy complex in Kabul but also to the consulate offices in Mazar-e-Sharif, Jalalabad, Kandhar and Herat.
The ITBP guards render perimeter security and access control duties at Indian installations besides being also trained to undertake special rescue and VIP security duties in cases of emergency.
The ITBP Director General said the squad will be in place soon and will carry out all necessary tasks involved in securing the Embassy, diplomats and others employees.
They will render proximate, mobile and static security duties.
In 2008, a car bomb attack on the Indian Embassy in Kabul killed over 60 people and suicide attacks on two guesthouses in 2010 killed 16 people, including seven Indians.
