Summary The explosives were placed in a garbage can.
JALALABAD (AFP) - A small bomb exploded near the Indian consulate in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad Tuesday, authorities said, after a series of attacks on Indian installations in the region.
The blast, which came the morning after a gun and bomb siege near the Indian consulate in a northern Afghan city, was some 200 metres from the consulate in Jalalabad, an Indian diplomatic source there told AFP. There were no reported injuries at the scene.
The explosion also follows a bloody weekend assault on an air base in India near the Pakistan border.
But Vikas Swarup, a spokesman for India s ministry of external affairs, told AFP the consulate "was not the target".
The area also houses the consulates for Pakistan and Iran.
Ataullah Khogyani, a spokesman for Nangarhar province s governor, said authorities were unsure who the target was but that a police convoy had been passing when the blast went off.
"The explosives were placed in a garbage can," he added.
The attack was not immediately claimed but Indian interests have been targeted twice since Saturday in spectacular assaults, one against its consulate in Mazar-i-Sharif, and the other by insurgents on an air force base in the northern Indian state of Punjab.
