Following repeated attacks on Indians working on a road project in trouble-torn Afghanistan, a team of senior ITBP officials is preparing to visit the neighbouring country to assess the situation there and talk to local officials in order to ensure better security.

Three employees of the Border Roads Organisation (BRO), which is building a strategic road on the Afghanistan-Iran border, and two jawans of the ITBP, which is providing security to the workers, have been killed in separate militant attacks since the project began in 2004. The latest in this spate of attacks came on Thursday when one ITBP jawan, Dev Kumar, was killed and four injured in a suicide attack while returning to their camp.

Home Ministry sources said a team of ITBP officials would visit the area sometime next week. The team will talk to local police officials and government representatives on measures that need to be taken to ensure proper security of Indian citizens. The team will also go to other places where the Indians are working, including Kandahar and capital Kabul where ITBP is responsible for guarding the Indian Embassy. Sources said there was no possibility of India’s pullout from the project at this stage, as the project was in any case scheduled to be completed by next month.

However, some reinforcements in the form of additional ITBP personnel may be sent to Afghanistan. The sources said with less than two months left for the project, the initial thought was to continue with the people already in Afghanistan but in view of this latest attack some additional soldiers might be sent, mainly to compensate for the dead or injured who have returned to the country.

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