Kabul attack: Govt was warned about terror strike

New Delhi: Could the terror attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul on Monday have been avoided? CNN-IBN has learnt that intelligence agencies had warned the Government about a possible terrorist strike on the country's diplomatic community.

Intelligence sources say the information was specifically related to an attack on a consulate, not an embassy. And while that could have been done to create confusion, the fact remains that the information had been received.

The Indian embassy was a soft target for the Taliban since it was relatively less protected than enclosures belonging to the Coalition Forces. The attack comes three days after the Indian Army Chief General Deepak Kapoor said that al-Qaeda and terror groups operating in Jammu and Kashmir have joined the Taliban-al-Qaeda combine.

The Chief of Army Staff had said, “They (Taliban) would go and wage a war in the name of jihad anywhere. Could be Afghanistan or Jammu and Kashmir. It has happened with in the past.”

For over a year now the US and Afghanistan governments have been warning of a resurgence of the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).

The regrouping of the Taliban now is taking place under a new line of leadership with terrorist leaders like Beitullah Mehsud.

The Taliban is now firmly entrenched in tribal areas in Pakistan bordering Afghanistan, and have taken control of a large part of Eastern Afghanistan.

“Definitely it has been done by the Taliban. It is an attempt to hit India’s strategic interests in Afghanistan,” strategic affairs analyst Mandeep Bajwa said.

Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai has been critical of Pakistan's inability to prevent cross-border attacks by the Taliban and al-Qaeda. And last month, senior US defence officials also said that any future terrorist attack against US interests would probably be carried out by militants based in FATA.

Perhaps, it’s time the Government takes all warnings and specific intelligence information seriously now.