Last year, a suicide car bomber had rammed the gate of the Indian embassy in Kabul. Among those killed were senior IFS officer VV Rao and defence attache Brigadier R D Mehta.

A powerful explosion rocked the centre of Afghanistan's capital early on Thursday near the Indian Embassy and the Interior Ministry, where dozens of civilians were killed in an attack last year. The bomb blast , which police believed was the work of a suicide bomber, took place around 0827 local time (0927 IST).