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Details about the attack in Kabul are begriming to emerge. The so called embassy was actually a military base run by Brigidier Ravi Mehta who not only provided help and logistical support to the Afghan Army, he also was part of an anti-insurgency effort that targeted the Taliban and other Pakhtuns and Pakistanis in and around Kabul.

The so called embassy had a reinforced concrete bunker in it and was linked by satellite communication to the Indian Defense Department. Brigadier Ravi Mehta coordinated the working of the more than 2000 Indian soldiers who are supporting the Karzai government. The base also tracked the intelligence officers in the 4 Indian Consulates and the 13 “Information Centers” that occupy Afghan like a web

A story in the Times of India claims that Brigadier Ravi Mehta was specifically targeting for his role in providing strategic vision and combat operations advice to his Afghan counterparts who are in office.

Brig Mehta, on his part, was playing a key role in India’s military training and logistical help to Afghanistan. Though India does not actually have soldiers deployed in Afghanistan, it has built bridges with the Afghan armed forces to counter any prospect of Pakistan regaining influence in the war-ravaged country through a resurgent Taliban

India has been regularly training Afghan officers and other ranks at its military training institutions, ranging from the National Defence Academy at Khadakwasla to the School of Artillery at Devlali, ever since the Karzai government came to office.
Apart from developmental projects like the construction of the 218-km Zaranj-Delaram road, India has also posted some army officers in Afghanistan to teach basic military fieldcraft and English skills to the Afghan army, apart from sending several military doctors to help at hospitals in Kandahar and elsewhere.

The site of a suicide attack in front of the Indian Embassy in Kabul.

NEW DELHI: The mastermind behind the suicide attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul on Monday may not be immediately known, but it had been the favourite target of the Taliban before they entered the war-torn city on September 26, 1996, till they were driven out by the US-led coalition in November 2001.
So intense were the rocket attacks on the embassy at a time when Taliban were inching closer to Kabul waging bloody fights against the Northern Alliance forces led by legendary leader Masood, that officials had decided to construct a heavily fortified bunker right inside the embassy premises.
So specific was the targeting of the Indian embassy that the officials used to leave their cars and other vehicles parked inside the Indonesian embassy, which is next to the Indian embassy, to keep them safe from the Taliban rockets.

The bunker, which was constructed after a BSF jawan on deputation was killed in one such rocket attack, had three small rooms with an attached kitchen and provided enough room for officials to dive in everytime there was a blast nearby.

But before the officials actually got used to a life in the bunker, the Indian government decided to close the embassy in September 1996 as the Afghan government was in no position to guarantee the security of the staff and building. The embassy closed on September 26, 1996, barely 12 hours before Taliban entered Kabul.

When this correspondent visited the embassy premises in December 2001, it still bore telltale signs of rocket attacks and the vandalism at the hands of the Taliban during the five-year reign, which ended in November 2001 through the ‘war against terror’ by US-led forces.

After then external affairs minister Jaswant Singh reopened the embassy on December 22, 2001, the day Hamid Karzai was sworn in as interim president of Afghanistan, the bunker was dismantled with a plan to fill the pit and make a landscaped garden over it.