3 Militants Killed In Gunbattle Outside India's Afghan consulate By Afghan special Forces

After A Long Gun Battle All Three Militants were Shoot Down By Afghan Special Forces Near The India's Afghan Consulate in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif.

Indian Ambassador to Afghanistan Amar Sinha tweeted "Clearing ops (operations) in Mazar on by special forces.Heavy fighting going on. GOV (Governor) Atta personally monitoring. All safe in consulate."

He also retweeted a message by a journalist which said, "A friend in need ..Meet the Afg (Afghan) guv (governor) who took up arms to protect Indian consulate in Mazar-i-Sharif".

Afghan special forces killed a group of insurgents holed up in a house in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif late on Monday, bringing to an end a 24-hour siege following the insurgents’ attack on the nearby Indian consulate.

The soldiers killed the three insurgents who had shut themselves into a large house near the consulate, said Abdul Razaq Qaderi, deputy police chief of Balkh province.

He said an investigation was under way to try to identify the men and those behind the attack.
Some local media reports, however, put the number of insurgents killed at four.

Eight members of the security forces were wounded in the gun battle which followed the attack on the consulate. The Indian ambassador said all the consulate staff were safe.

A former Mujahideen, Governor of Afghanistan's Balkh province Ata Mohammad Noor Also wielded the gun to protect the Indian consulate at Mazar-i-Sharif after it was attacked last night by heavily-armed militants who tried to storm in.

In pictures that have gone viral, Noor is seen holding an assault rifle and aiming to take shots and also interacting with the soldiers outside the Indian consulate in Mazar-i-Sharif, the capital of his province.

Noor is a former Mujahideen during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and is trained in combat. He has also served as a commander in Ahmad Shah Masood's Norther Alliance - the resistance against the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

Earlier The attack began late on Sunday after gunmen tried unsuccessfully to break into the consulate, taking advantage of the fact that many people were watching the final of a football championship between Afghanistan and India.

After a heavy exchange of fire that went on until well into the night, security forces suspended operations before resuming in the morning, firing rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machine guns at the building.

“The area is sealed off and we are proceeding cautiously and making all possible efforts to protect the lives of those in the area. The attackers will be killed,” the provincial governor, Atta Mohammad Noor, said on his Facebook page.

Gunfire rang out as helicopters circled overhead in a residential area of the city.

Noor blamed “enemies of peace and stability” for the attack, which came amid renewed efforts to lower tension between India and its rival Pakistan and restart peace talks with the Taliban in Afghanistan.

But there was no more concrete indication of who may have been responsible.

Last month, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Kabul and Islamabad on the same day, underlining the drive to improve stability and overcome the longstanding hostility in the region.

However, Sunday’s attack and the assault in Pathankot underlined how difficult that process is likely to be.

In 2014, India’s consulate in the western Afghan city of Herat was hit by heavily armed insurgents including suicide bombers, one of a series of attacks on Indian diplomatic stations in Afghanistan over previous years.

Pakistan has long been suspicious of India’s engagement with Afghanistan and its diplomatic presence there.

In Kabul, two suicide attacks on the same day highlighted how fragile the security situation in the country has become.


source: Hindustan Times and PTI

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