Security at Indian missions in Afghanistan Herat enhanced

Security measures at Indian missions in Afghanistan have been enhanced with both ITBP and Afghan security forces strenthening the defence mechanisms in the wake of the recent attack on the Consulate in Herat.

Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) force chief Subhas Goswami, who had recently visited that country for an on-the-spot assessment, said the Indian Embassy in Kabul and four Consulates in Herat, Kandahar, Jalalabad and Mazar-e-Sharif have been brought under heightened security measures right after the attack on May 23.

"We have already strengthened our security and defences at all the missions we are guarding in Afghanistan including at Herat. Some more measures will be deployed soon.

"The Afghan police has already created more pickets and deployed round-the-clock security by mobile police squads outside the Herat consulate," Goswami, who returned from Afghanistan last week, told PTI.

In a related development, discussions were underway for shifting the location of the Consulate in Herat as the present location was not safe.

While the ITBP chief did not comment on it, sources in the security establishment said the possibility of moving the Consulate General of India (CGI) at Herat to a new and safer location was also being mulled and it is the prerogative of the Ministry of External Affairs.

The CGI is currently located in a built-up residential area in Herat.

Source: http://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/security-at-indian-missions-in-afghanistan-enhanced-114060301801_1.html