India and Afghanistan took a step close to each other after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Hamid Karzai initialed three significant bilateral documents on Tuesday including the all encompassing strategic partnership agreement. Without prejudice towards commitment of New Delhi and Kabul to cooperate with each other, the strategic partnership agreement would be reduced to just a piece of paper till such time neighbour Pakistan continues to export terror to both the countries. It has now been proved beyond doubt that terror groups are strategic arms of Pakistans Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) with dedicated groups like Jalaludding-Sirajuddin Haqqani group and Taliban targeting Afghanistan, and Lashkar-e-Toiba focused on India. Even the bilateral agreements on mining and hydrocarbon exploration have no meaning until Pakistan sponsored terror stops in Afghanistan.
Much as India would want to stabilize Kabul, it is incumbent on the international community particularly the US to put pressure on Pakistan Army to dismantle the terror apparatus in that country so that peace prevails across the Durand Line. The fact is since the launch of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan on October 7, 2001, America has been doling out aid in the name of security and economic assistance to Islamabad in the hope that Pakistan turns off the terror tap.
However, ISI has different plans and has brutally targeted Indian Embassy and Indians in Kabul thrice during 2008-2010. It had the audacity to target American Embassy and NATO headquarters in Kabul on September 13, 2011 using the Haqqani network that killed seven people and injured 13. Although Washington has made noises about stopping assistance to Pakistan this year till it behaves on terror front, past instances show that Islamabad would like to play Russian roulette once again and force US to cough up assistance or promise that all hell would break loose in the nuclear armed Islamic nation.
America doles out some $2.75 billion worth of security assistance and compensation and another $1.5 billion economic assistance to Islamabad each year. But despite US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton virtually having a three-hour slanging match with Pakistan foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar on UNGA sidelines last month over Islamabad covert support to terror in Afghanistan, the ground situation is not expected to improve in near future.
While India would like to ensure that Kabul stands on its feet after decades of civil war and terror, it is hamstrung as it does not have either a land or a sea corridor to stabilize Afghanistan with Pakistan having no intentions of opening the Wagah-Khyber land route for New Delhi.
Irans Chahbahar port on the Gulf of Oman is an option but both China and Pakistan have informally conveyed to India that it would activate the Gwadar port if New Delhi moves to develop the port in Sistan province across the Baluchistan border.
India has close ties with Afghanistans neighbour Tajikistan but again only the air bridge across Amu Darya is available and that too with the help of Russia. So with Pakistan Army continuing to treat Afghanistan as its strategic depth, the bottom line is that Islamabad, like it or lump it virtually holds all the political and economic levers to land-locked Kabul. It is nobodys case to say that New Delhi should wait for Pakistan to turn off the terror switch before it seriously invests in building road and economic infrastructure in Afghanistan. New Delhi has build the Zalranj-Delaram highway in eastern Afghanistan against all odds, constructed the 220 KV double circuit transmission line from Pul-e-Khumri in Baghlan province to Kabul and is now bidding for iron ore mining at Hajigak near Kabul but largely due to peace enforced by US led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). With US steadfast on its plan to pull out troops from Afghanistan by 2014, Afghanistan would yet again be at the mercy of Pakistan sponsored terror groups including Taliban until and unless the global community makes it clear to20Islamabad that terrorism is unacceptable as state policy.
It is not that the US or other western powers do not see through the Pakistan game. Gone are days of bonhomie between Rawalpindi GHQ and Pentagon. Even Pakistans closest ally Saudi Arabia has now given up on Islamabad as domestic problems mount for Al Saud house. The signing of the strategic partnership agreement also indicates that US has abandoned the pro-Pakistan Richard Holbrooke-Joe Biden line of the past and reposed their confidence in Hamid Karzai.
While there are all indication that US and the international community will ratchet pressure on Pakistan on terror front, Islamabad has now started to play the China card by vowing to help Beijing wipe out only Uighur terrorists in restive Xinjiang province. With China having the ambitions of becoming the next superpower and global peacemaker, the international community should also engage Beijing to rein in Islamabad so that terror swamps are drained in Pakistan and Afghanistan polity gets stabilized.
The assassination of former Afghanistan president Burhanuddin Rabbani, head of the Karzai appointed peace and reconciliation council, in suicide bombing engineered by Taliban on September 20, 2011 shows that mayhem and terror are never far away from Kabul. It is time that the US and the international community took some hard steps to convince Islamabad that its double game on terrorism must end. Until the security and economic assistance to Pakistan is conditional on the steps it takes to purge the radical Islamists from ISI and dismantle the linkages between Army and terror groups, Afghanistan would continue to be on the razor edge even if it signs strategic agreements with half the world.
In Afghanistan, Pakistan holds all the cards : Inside Story
Much as India would want to stabilize Kabul, it is incumbent on the international community particularly the US to put pressure on Pakistan Army to dismantle the terror apparatus in that country so that peace prevails across the Durand Line. The fact is since the launch of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan on October 7, 2001, America has been doling out aid in the name of security and economic assistance to Islamabad in the hope that Pakistan turns off the terror tap.
However, ISI has different plans and has brutally targeted Indian Embassy and Indians in Kabul thrice during 2008-2010. It had the audacity to target American Embassy and NATO headquarters in Kabul on September 13, 2011 using the Haqqani network that killed seven people and injured 13. Although Washington has made noises about stopping assistance to Pakistan this year till it behaves on terror front, past instances show that Islamabad would like to play Russian roulette once again and force US to cough up assistance or promise that all hell would break loose in the nuclear armed Islamic nation.
America doles out some $2.75 billion worth of security assistance and compensation and another $1.5 billion economic assistance to Islamabad each year. But despite US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton virtually having a three-hour slanging match with Pakistan foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar on UNGA sidelines last month over Islamabad covert support to terror in Afghanistan, the ground situation is not expected to improve in near future.
While India would like to ensure that Kabul stands on its feet after decades of civil war and terror, it is hamstrung as it does not have either a land or a sea corridor to stabilize Afghanistan with Pakistan having no intentions of opening the Wagah-Khyber land route for New Delhi.
Irans Chahbahar port on the Gulf of Oman is an option but both China and Pakistan have informally conveyed to India that it would activate the Gwadar port if New Delhi moves to develop the port in Sistan province across the Baluchistan border.
India has close ties with Afghanistans neighbour Tajikistan but again only the air bridge across Amu Darya is available and that too with the help of Russia. So with Pakistan Army continuing to treat Afghanistan as its strategic depth, the bottom line is that Islamabad, like it or lump it virtually holds all the political and economic levers to land-locked Kabul. It is nobodys case to say that New Delhi should wait for Pakistan to turn off the terror switch before it seriously invests in building road and economic infrastructure in Afghanistan. New Delhi has build the Zalranj-Delaram highway in eastern Afghanistan against all odds, constructed the 220 KV double circuit transmission line from Pul-e-Khumri in Baghlan province to Kabul and is now bidding for iron ore mining at Hajigak near Kabul but largely due to peace enforced by US led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). With US steadfast on its plan to pull out troops from Afghanistan by 2014, Afghanistan would yet again be at the mercy of Pakistan sponsored terror groups including Taliban until and unless the global community makes it clear to20Islamabad that terrorism is unacceptable as state policy.
It is not that the US or other western powers do not see through the Pakistan game. Gone are days of bonhomie between Rawalpindi GHQ and Pentagon. Even Pakistans closest ally Saudi Arabia has now given up on Islamabad as domestic problems mount for Al Saud house. The signing of the strategic partnership agreement also indicates that US has abandoned the pro-Pakistan Richard Holbrooke-Joe Biden line of the past and reposed their confidence in Hamid Karzai.
While there are all indication that US and the international community will ratchet pressure on Pakistan on terror front, Islamabad has now started to play the China card by vowing to help Beijing wipe out only Uighur terrorists in restive Xinjiang province. With China having the ambitions of becoming the next superpower and global peacemaker, the international community should also engage Beijing to rein in Islamabad so that terror swamps are drained in Pakistan and Afghanistan polity gets stabilized.
The assassination of former Afghanistan president Burhanuddin Rabbani, head of the Karzai appointed peace and reconciliation council, in suicide bombing engineered by Taliban on September 20, 2011 shows that mayhem and terror are never far away from Kabul. It is time that the US and the international community took some hard steps to convince Islamabad that its double game on terrorism must end. Until the security and economic assistance to Pakistan is conditional on the steps it takes to purge the radical Islamists from ISI and dismantle the linkages between Army and terror groups, Afghanistan would continue to be on the razor edge even if it signs strategic agreements with half the world.
In Afghanistan, Pakistan holds all the cards : Inside Story
