India has lodged a strong protest with Pakistan after militants twice targeted an Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) security convoy carrying three India-bound officials en route from Jalalabad consulate to the airport. The militants are believed to have been from Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT),supported by the local Taliban in the restive Nangarhar border province in Afghanistan. Government sources told The Sunday Express that Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao summoned Pakistan High Commissioner Shahid Malik last Monday and served him a single-page demarche conveying New Delhis concern about Pakistani intelligence agencies and terrorist groups targeting Indian personnel in a third country. New Delhi has asked Islamabad to rein in its intelligence agencies and Pakistan-based LeT and restrain them from attacking Indian targets. The Pakistani top leadership has openly been wary of the Jalalabad consulate as it believes that New Delhi uses it to listen across the Khyber Pass on the goings-on in North-West Frontier Province (NWFP). The ISI has been actively targeting Indian diplomats through strong-arm tactics and outright attacks. According to the demarche,on May 20 morning,as the ITBP security convoy left the Indian consulate at Jalalabad and turned left after crossing a lane,it was targeted by a remotely controlled improvised explosive device planted by unidentified terrorists. As the intensity of the device was low,the three senior ITBP officials,on their way home to India via Kabul,were unhurt in the attack. However,the same convoy was targeted with IEDs yet again just short of the Jalalabad airport. This time,the device went off at a distance of 120 metres but it was evident that the target was Indian security officials as there was no other vehicle on the road to Jalalabad airport that morning. While Nangarhar Governor Gul Agha Sherzai conveyed to the Indians that the attack was non-specific,New Delhi is convinced,through technical inputs,that it was sponsored by the ISI using the LeT terrorists. The Indian mission in Kabul has been twice bombed by terrorists,later identified as belonging to the LeT,in the past two years,and its non-combat personnel were targeted in Afghanistan earlier this year.
