Trooper was returning home from Kabul when blast ended it all

NEW DELHI - Trooper Roshan Lal of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) was getting ready for an early flight back home in Himachal Pradesh’s Chamba district when a powerful blast in Kabul Friday cruelly cut short his life.

Roshan Lal, one of the nine Indians killed in the series of explosions in the Afghan capital Friday, was in his room when the terror attack took place.

“He and another ITBP trooper were in their rooms… when the blast took place. Roshan Lal could not get out and was killed. The other jawan managed to save his own life somehow,” a top official told IANS here.

“Roshan Lal was about to get ready to catch an early flight. But unfortunately the blast took his life.”

Taliban bombers equipped with suicide vests and automatic rifles attacked a hotel and a guesthouse run by Indians in heavily fortified Kabul, killing at least 15 people, including nine Indians.

Roshan Lal, who had been in Kabul for a year and was waiting to go home for a much deserved holiday, was posted on general duty at an Indian consulate outside Kabul. He is survived by his wife, it is learnt.

The government is sending a special plane to bring back his body and those of the other Indians killed.

Roshan Lal’s body will be taken to Himachal Pradesh. The ITBP battalion in Chamba and the state district administration are being informed, officials said.