Kabul: Pakistan`s ISI was behind the
terror plot to target the Indian Consulate General in
Jalalabad and had given Rs 120 crore for the operation, two
persons arrested by Afghan authorities said.
The two confessed that ISI had given them the money
to carry out the attack, Afghanistan`s National Directorate of
Security (NDS) spokesperson Luftullah Mashal said.
At a joint press conference with Afghan President
Hamid karzai, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh described as
"worrisome" reports that the Indian mission was the target of
a terror plot in Afghanistan.
"If what you have stated is true, well it is
worrisome," Singh said when asked to comment on the plot.
Mashal said the men were given a vehicle and weapons
apart from Pakistani Rs.120 crore to carry out the attack.
"As I said in my introductory remarks, peace and
security in the region requires all countries of the region to
think afresh the futility of having recourse to terrorism as
an instrument of state policy," the Prime Minister said.
Singh, here on a two-day visit here, today held talks
with Karzai on a wide range of issues including terrorism and
India`s assistance to the war-torn country.
The Indian embassy in Kabul was attacked by terrorists
in 2008. That terror attack and another on the diplomatic
mission of the country, a year later killed scores.
Militants attacked two residential hotels in Kabul,
last year, that were popular among Indians in which at least
six Indians were killed.
Commenting on the attacks on Indian missions in
Afghanistan, President Karzai said these were tragic,
unfortunate and criminal.
"With regard to very tragic attack on Indian embassies
and Indian doctors and personnel in Afghanistan, helping
Afghanistan people in various areas of reconstruction and
health assistance, this was really tragic and unfortunate and
criminal," he said.
"Now, since we have been together with the Government
of India, Afghanistan is trying the best to provide better and
more protection to these sites that are owned by India,"
Karzai said.
"Terrorism as the PM (Manmohan Singh) said is the
scourge that we all have to fight and fight effectively, and
this falls also within the responsibility of the countries in
this region," he said.
"I don`t think that at the end of the day anybody can
benefit from this violence."
PTI
