JALALABAD: Gunfire and an explosion echoed on Wednesday as militants attacked India’s consulate in Jalalabad, killing three people in the latest in a string of assaults on Indian installations in Afghanistan.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the brazen attack, which coincided with a Nato change-of-command ceremony that saw US General John Nicholson take charge of international troops in Afghanistan.

Indian diplomats were not hurt, the foreign ministry in New Delhi said, after a suicide bomber blew himself up at the consulate’s entrance and four other attackers breached the compound.

“All four of them were killed by our security forces,” government spokesman Attaullah Khogyani said after the two-hour assault ended.

Five assailants among the dead

“Three others — two civilians and one policeman — were killed and 19 other people were left wounded.”

The powerful explosion sent a column of smoke rising in the sky and blew out windows of nearby buildings, as Afghan troops hauled away bodies from the area littered with charred debris.

The attack highlights the worsening security situation in Afghanistan as Taliban militants step up nationwide attacks and members of the militant Islamic State (IS) group make inroads in the volatile east.

Wednesday’s assault was reminiscent of a 25-hour gun and bomb siege near the Indian consulate in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif in January. India has been a key supporter of Kabul’s post-Taliban government.

Delegates from Afghanistan, China, the US and Pakistan recently met in Kabul for a fourth round of talks aimed at paving the way for direct negotiations between Afghan officials and Taliban militants.

But the Taliban have intensified their armed campaign in an apparent attempt to gain leverage before the planned negotiations.

Nangarhar province, of which Jalalabad is the capital, also faces an emerging threat from loyalists of IS, which controls territory across Syria and Iraq and is making gradual inroads in Afghanistan — challenging the Taliban on their own turf.

In January IS fighters claimed responsibility for a deadly gun and bomb siege of the Pakistani consulate in Jalalabad, the first major attack by the group in an Afghan city.

The violence tearing the country apart is having a devastating impact on Afghan civilians.

A recent UN report highlighted more than 11,000 civilian casualties last year, including 3,545 deaths, a new record since 2009 when the agency began tabulating the statistics.

Published in Dawn, March 3rd, 2016