2:43pm UK, Tuesday July 08, 2008

The Afghan government has said that “foreign intelligence” was behind a bomb blast outside the Indian embassy in Kabul in an apparent reference to Pakistan.

Explosion outside Indian embassy killed 41 people and wounded about 150

The explosion killed 41 people and wounded about 150 in one of the worst atrocities in the country since the Taliban was overthrown in 2001.

A security report to the cabinet hours after the blast said the attack could not have been carried out without the “full support of foreign intelligence,” according to a summary of the meeting released to the media.

It did not name a foreign intelligence service but Afghanistan regularly accuses circles in Pakistan, a long-time rival of India, of supporting the Taliban and other insurgents.

Pakistan denies the accusation.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s spokesman said Afghan officials had “sufficient evidence” to blame a foreign intelligence agency.

Humayun Hamidzada did not name Pakistan but told reporters it was “pretty obvious” who was behind Monday’s blast.

He said: “The project was designed outside Afghanistan. It was exported to Afghanistan.

“The sophistication of this attack and the kind of materials used and the specific targeting, everything has the hallmark of a particular intelligence agency that has conducted similar terrorist acts in Afghanistan in the past.”

A senior government official who did not want to be identified told the AFP news agency: “Pakistan was behind the attack on the Indian embassy.”

Among the blast’s victims were four Indians working in the embassy, including the military attache and a diplomat.

Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani denied his government was involved in the attack.

Speaking in Kuala Lumpur, he said it was not in Islamabad’s interests to destabilise Afghanistan.

The security report into the Indian embassy bombing said: ”The terrorists no doubt could not have succeeded in launching such an atrocity without full support of foreign intelligence.”

It said a “big number of puppet and foreign terrorists, the enemies of peace and stability of the Afghan people, have entered the country in the past several months”.

And in a clear reference to Pakistan, it said “evidence shows that the terrorists have been trained, equipped and financed in professional bases across the border”.