A team of senior ITBP officers, led by force chief Subhas Goswami, has been rushed to Afghanistan to take stock of security preparedness at all Indian missions in the war-torn country in the backdrop of the recent attack on the Consulate in Herat.
Officials said Director General Goswami and his officers, drawn from the operations and intelligence wings, will tour the Indian Embassy in Kabul and its four Consulates in Jalalabad, Mazar-e-Sharif, Kandahar and Herat and they are expected to meet the Indian Ambassador and local Afghan police and administrative authorities.
“The team will take stock of security arrangements at all the Indian missions which include the Kabul Embassy and other Consulates which are under the security cover of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police in Afghanistan,” official sources said. The team will prepare an assessment report after their return from the country, they said.
ITBP troops had repulsed and averted an audacious attack on the Consulate in Herat on May 23 when four heavily armed terrorists tried to breach the security of the mission. The force, recently in April, bolstered the security of not only the Herat mission but other Consulates and the Embassy in Kabul by deploying a fresh squad of 79 commandos who were distributed equally amongst all the five locations. The touring team will also look into the requirements of additional logistical and operational gadgets of the paramilitary troops deployed at these installations.
The force has beefed up security at all these locations and a high alert has been sounded in the wake of the latest incident.
