Four Indians killed in Kabul attack identified

The four Indians killed in the overnight Taliban attack at a guest house in Kabul have been identified as Mathew George, R.K. Bhatti, Satish Chandra and Martha Farrel, army sources said on Thursday.

Two of those killed were from Kerala, one from Chandigarh and one from Andhra Pradesh.

Martha Farrell, 56, was to return to India from Afghanistan on Saturday. An official from NGO Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA) told IANS that Farrell was the spokesperson for a training programme conducted by the Aga Khan Trust.
She was in Afghanistan from May 9 and was to return on May 16.

Army sources said Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani's special envoy for good governance Ahmad Zia Massoud visited the attack scene in Kabul late on Wednesday night where a group of militants launched a coordinated attack.

They said Massoud told reporters near the Park Palace guest house that militants attacked it thinking the Indian ambassador was present in the compound.

The sources said Massoud termed it a political attack but did not elaborate further.
They said the ambassador was at the residence of India's military attache in Kabul at the time of the incident.

A single gunman attacked the guest house in Kabul's Kolola Pushta late on Wednesday night where a musical concert was scheduled to be held, killing 14 people.

An American, a British citizen and an Italian were also killed in the attack while the nationalities of two others have not been ascertained yet, according to a statement issued by the Afghan authorities.