Kabul/New Delhi: A 25-hour gun battle between security forces and terrorists near the Indian consulate in Afghanistan city of Mazar-i-Sharif came to end late Monday night with the killing of all the attackers who attempted to storm the Mission building.
Provincial police chief Sayed Kamal Sadat said that the clearance operation is over and all the terrorists have all been killed.
Government spokesman Shir Jan Durrani said three armed assailants had been killed after they mounted an attack on the diplomatic mission from a nearby building late Sunday.
Durrani added that the fighting left one policeman dead and 11 others wounded. No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack in northern Afghanistan, the latest in a series of assaults on Indian installations in the country.
Some reports said one of the attackers was captured alive but there was no confirmation about it.
A group of terrorists had attacked the Consulate at around 9.15 pm on Sunday with an aim of storming the building but their plan was thwarted by the security forces.
Earlier, official sources said special combat units of the Afghan National Police had recovered three bodies from outside the Indian consulate.
Subsequently, some more terrorists were holed up in a five-storey building about 100 metres across the road from the Indian Consulate and security forces had launched a daunting onslaught to neutralise them.
Afghan Prez briefs PM Modi on Indian consulate attack
Yesterday evening, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani called up Prime Minister Narendra Modi who told him that India will always stand with the people of Afghanistan notwithstanding the terror attack on the Consulate.
Ghani briefed Modi about the incident and Modi expressed deep appreciation for the exemplary bravery and courage shown by the Afghan National Security Forces in thwarting the terrorist attack and ensuring security and safety of the Indian Consulate and personnel.
Officials said the Consulate came under attack at around 9.15 pm on Sunday night with at least two militants trying to storm. ITBP guards deployed on the sentry post foiled their attempt by raining heavy fire on them.
They said at least seven Rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) rounds were fired in the direction of the Consulate but all missed it.
Officials added that while there has been no damage to the five-storeyed and pink-coloured Consulate building A strong contingent of over four-dozen ITBP commandos has been securing this facility from 2008 apart from three other missions in the country and the main Embassy in the capital, Kabul.
The security of these sensitive facilities were recently heightened after the ITBP deployed over 35 commandos at Indian missions in Kabul, Jalalabad, Herat, Kandhar and Mazar-i-Sharif.
With Agency Inputs
