Gunmen still firing on Indian Consulate in Afghanistan

“He (Ghani) strongly condemned the cross-border terrorist attack in Pathankot and extended condolences at the loss of lives in the attack”, the external affairs ministry said in a statement.

“Our clearance operation is going on near the consulate”, said Munir Farhad, a spokesman for the Balkh provincial governor, told AFP. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

More commandos joined in and they held fort for more than two-and-a-half hours till the Afghan National Police took over from them. The Taliban have carried out similar attacks in the past.

While no Indian officials were harmed by the blast, reports said that it “badly damaged a mosque and dozens of homes and small shops nearby”. He said the five were abducted from a main highway around a week earlier by Taliban insurgents.

“A bomber on foot detonated his suicide vest near Kabul airport”.

“The attackers are holed up inside the building”.

“We are still doing room-to-room searches”.

“The attackers are enemies of Afghanistan who do not want peace”, Mr Noor told reporters. “Since it is a residential area, we are proceeding very cautiously after overnight fighting to avoid civilian casualties”. “All safe in consulate”, Ambassador of India to Afghanistan Amar Sinha tweeted.

Local police said some consulate employees had been evacuated.

However, Sunday’s attack and a separate assault on an Indian air base in Pathankot, in the northwest Indian state of Punjab, underlined how hard that process is likely to be.

Officials said the attack bore the hallmarks of previous suspected assaults by Pakistan-based militant groups, underscoring the fragility of recent efforts to revive bilateral talks between the often uneasy neighbors.

The assault – a rare targeting of an Indian military installation outside disputed Kashmir – threatens to undermine improving relations with Pakistan.

This current standoff at the Indian consulate is the most recent in a series of attacks on Indian diplomatic stations in Afghanistan in recent years.

In the last decade, Indian embassy and consulates in Afghanistan have faced six terror attacks, with the last being on the consulate in Herat, just before the swearing-in of Narendra Modi as Prime Minister.

Indian diplomatic missions in Afghanistan have come under militant attacks earlier too. Dostum has been a Taliban target for long.

He added that some casualties had been reported but initial details were scarce.