Nirupama Rao to go to Kabul on Friday

Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao is likely to go to Afghanistan Friday to take stock of the situation in the aftermath of the suicide attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul, in which 17 people were killed.

Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao is likely to go to Afghanistan Friday to take stock of the situation in the aftermath of the suicide attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul, in which 17 people were killed.

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According to reliable sources, Rao is expected to leave Friday for Kabul.

At least 17 people were killed and 76 injured, some seriously, when a Taliban suicide bomber detonated a car packed with explosives near the Indian embassy in Kabul Thursday morning. This was the second such terror attack since July 2008.

Barring three Indian paramilitary personnel who were injured, all the other casualties in Thursday's attack were Afghans. The dead included two police officers and 15 civilian visa seekers.

The deafening 8.27 a.m. blast extensively damaged the embassy's fortified outer wall and blew off windows and doors of the building. The injured Indians were from the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) deployed outside the mission.

The explosion, the fifth suicide strike in Kabul in two months, was heard across a large area. Scores of people outside the embassy fell bleeding and others ran for cover crying for help. It left a large crater in the ground outside the embassy.