India, Afghan Leaders Decry Mission Bombing
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
NEW DELHI — The leaders of India and Afghanistan yesterday decried last month’s bombing of New Delhi’s mission in the Afghan capital — but made no mention of the country both hold responsible for the attack: Pakistan.
India and Afghanistan — and, reportedly, America — believe Pakistan’s powerful spy service, the Inter-Services Intelligence, orchestrated the bombing that killed 58 people in an effort to undermine growing ties between New Delhi and Kabul.
Instead, it may have only strengthened them. Prime Minster Singh said yesterday that India would give another $450 million to aid in the rebuilding of Afghanistan.
He called the bombing “an attack on the friendship between India and Afghanistan” and pledged that “we will not allow terrorism to stand in our way.”
Mr. Singh spoke after meeting President Karzai of Afghanistan, who told reporters: “Afghanistan will stand with our friends in India in fighting the menace of terrorism.”
“As India has suffered immensely from this menace, Afghanistan has too,” Mr. Karzai, who arrived yesterday and was heading home later today, said.
Messrs. Singh and Karzai conspicuously avoided any direct reference to Pakistan, which both have repeatedly accused of harboring and aiding Islamic militant groups behind numerous attacks in India and Afghanistan, including the embassy bombing.
