Polish intel had warned of attack on Indian embassy in Kabul

Betwa Sharma
New York, July 26 (PTI) A week before the 2008 Indian
embassy bombing in Kabul, Polish intelligence had warned of a
possible Taliban attack on Indian mission in the Afghan
capital, according to leaked intelligence documents.
The document on possible attack on the Indian Embassy
is part of a massive leak of 92,000 intelligence reports that
suggested that the war in Afghanistan is going badly for the
US, and Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) is
fuelling the insurgency in the war-torn country.
Advance copies of the leak were made available to
three publications - The New York Times, British daily
newspaper Guardian, and German weekly Der Spiegel, which made
some excerpts available.
The document dealing with the Indian Embassy is titled
'Threat Report... Threat to Indian Embassy.'
The date of information is June 30, 2008, while the
date of report is July 1, 2008. The organisation involved is
"Taliban Center" and the Report number is 75010708.
"Taliban are planning to carry out an attack on the
Indian embassy in Kabul. TB (Taliban) designated an engineer
____ to take this action," the document reads.
"He intends to use stolen ANA/ANP (Afghan National
Army/ Afghan National Police) car, and wears stolen uniform.
He speaks Dari with distinct Iranian accent. Allegedly, he is
the owner of a ___ company," it added.
A suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden car into
the heavily fortified Indian embassy gates in Kabul on July 7,
2008, killing 58 people and wounding more than 140.
Defence Attache Brigadier R D Mehta and Counsellor
Venkateswara Rao were killed when the suicide bomber targeted
the embassy during the morning rush hour.
"INS (Insurgents) are planning to divide into two
groups: first will attack Indian embassy building, whilst the
second group will engage security posts in front of MOI
(Ministry of Interior), IOT (In Order to) give possibility to
escape attackers from the first group," the report said.
"Budget for this action is about USD 1,20,000. The
main goal of this operation is to show TB's (Taliban)
abilities to carry out attack on every object in Kabul."
Other documents strongly indicate that Pakistan's ISI
is supporting the insurgency in Afghanistan, as well as
plotting with Taliban leaders to assassinate Afghan leaders.
The New York Times pointed out that it has been
difficult for the US to pin Pakistan's spy agency directly to
an attack orchestrated by the Taliban.
But the assault on the Indian embassy led the CIA's
then deputy director Stephen R Kappes to immediately go to
Islamabad to confront the ISI with evidence that it had helped
organise the attack. (MORE) PTI