India will attend the upcoming Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) conference on Afghanistan to be held later this month in Moscow, said the local daily The Statesman Saturday.

The newspaper quoted government sources here as saying India, which holds the observer's status at SCO, is in favor of a policy that integrates development projects in Afghanistan with "security initiatives".

Indian prime minister's special envoy on Pakistan, Satinder Lambah, is likely to represent India at the conference on March 27 in Russia, the current rotating chair of the SCO.

Indian officials also say they are also opposed to the distinction being drawn between 'good' Tabliban and 'bad' Taliban.

Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee has called the former Afghan student movement as "a terrorist group" and " threat to human civilizations."

Some 4,000 Indians are now working in different projects in Afghanistan, according to Indian official.

Indian embassy in Kabul came under a terrorist attack in July last year, in which over 40 people were killed, including four Indian diplomats.

(Xinhua News Agency March 21, 2009)