Kabul: A week after a suicide bomb attack took place near the Indian Embassy in Kabul, Indian Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon will be visiting the city on Sunday to reassure the Afghanistan government that India will not cot down in the face of terrorism and will expand its humanitarian and development aid to Afghanistan.

The National Security Secretariat of the Afghanistan government has told CNN-IBN that the best way to respond to Pakistan’s efforts to destabilise the growing India-Afghanistan strategic partnership is to strengthen India’s presence in Afghanistan.

National Security Advisor M K Narayanan has reaffirmed the Afghan government view saying that Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) is responsible for the bombing.

Both governments have now decided that the best response to the ISI is to expand, deepen and strengthen India’s presence in and strategic partnership with Afghanistan.

“We run a massive capacity development programme in Afghanistan — the biggest campaign being run for Afghanistan by any country. It is also the biggest campaign that India runs for any country,” Indian Ambassador to Afghanistan Jayant Prasad said.

Several Afghan students are the beneficiaries of India’s capacity development programme. They have been accepted for admission in the University of Pune. But the attack on the Embassy destroyed their official documents.

The Indian Embassy has told CNN-IBN that all student visas will be processed from Monday and hopefully the Afghan students will soon be in studying in India.

It is expected that Menon’s visit to Kabul will eventually enable hundreds of more Afghan students to study in universities across India.