HNS/AP

Embassy of Nepal in Pakistan claimed today that four Nepali guards were injured, not killed, in an attack on a transit camp of a company that supplies goods to NATO forces in Kabul. 

However, Associated Press reported, quoting Afghan officials, that Taliban suicide attackers blew up a truck bomb early today at the gates of a NATO supplier’s compound in Kabul and sprayed gunfire at security personnel, killing Nepali guards, an Afghan and two civilians.

The attack started before dawn, when a suicide bomber drove a small truck to the outer gate of the logistics centre used to supply NATO troops and detonated it. The explosion made a massive crater in the ground and damaged a guard tower, Kabul provincial police chief Mohammad Ayuob Salangi told AP. 

Four gunmen then stormed into the breach and battled with security guards, and an Afghan police special response team that was called in, for about an hour before being killed, the Interior Ministry said in a statement. One Afghan and four Nepali guards were also killed, the ministry said. Two truck drivers waiting nearby to enter the compound were also killed in the blast, along with the bomber. 

Ambassador of Nepal to Pakistan Bharat Raj Paudyal, on the other hand, told THT: “We have only received information of injuries to four Nepalis who were employed as security guards by the DynCorp International that supplies logistics to NATO forces.” Paudyal is also Nepal’s non-resident envoy to Afghanistan. 

A fellow Nepali working in Kabul informed THT that all four injured Nepalis were receiving treatment at a medical centre of the International Security Assistance Force, also known as NATO force. Tilak Pokharel, who works for the UN in Kabul tweeted: “Insider info indicates that no Nepali has died in today’s attack in Kabul. 3-4 wounded Nepalis stable in hospital.”

What’s causing the confusion

KATHMANDU: It’s not the first time that international news media’s information is at variance with Nepali embassy in Pakistan. In May, Associated Press and BBC had initially reported that one Nepali, along with Afghan nationals, were killed in a Taliban attack at the International Organisation for Migration office in Kabul but later it was verified that no one was killed in the incident. “Such misleading information comes particularly from Afghanistan, where journalists and, in some cases local police, are not allowed to visit incident sites due to security reasons,” a source told THT. AP has quoted Afghan Police Chief Mohammad Ayuob Salangi. — HNS

Published on: 3 July 2013 | The Himalayan Times