The Hindu : National : Kabul Embassy martyrs remembered

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Wednesday, Jul 08, 2009
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Kabul Embassy martyrs remembered

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: India on Tuesday remembered martyrs of the suicide attack on its embassy in Kabul a year ago. AnIndian Foreign Service official, a Brigadier and several Afghan civilians were killed in the attack.

Minister for External Affairs S.M. Krishna recalled their sacrifice “with a sense of grief” and reiterated the country’s commitment against terrorism .

“Our thoughts are also with all the families who have lost their loved ones. No words of condemnation are too strong for the perpetrators of this attack. They must and will face a reckoning. Justice must be served,” he said in a statement tabled in both Houses of Parliament.

Officials of the Ministry of External Affairs also remembered their colleague Venkateswara Rao, the second Indian diplomat to die a violent death after Ravindra Mhatre, who was kidnapped and killed by Kashmiri militants in the United Kingdom in 1984. Military Attaché Brig. Ravi Datt Mehta was with Rao when the suicide attacker struck as their car was entering the embassy. Rao is survived by his wife Malathi and two minor daughters, while Brig. Mehta leaves behind his wife Sunita, son Flt. Lt. Udit Mehta and daughter Bhavya.

“Please join me in a moment of silence to recall their sacrifice, to honour their memory and to reiterate our commitment to fight terrorism and all those who sponsor and sustain it,” Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon said at the condolence meeting organised by MEA officials. “We lost several colleagues and even larger number of Afghan nationals gave up their precious lives, making the supreme sacrifice in the line of duty,” he added.

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