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KABUL: Across Afghanistan, behind the obvious battles fought for this countrys soul, a shadow war is being quietly waged. Its being fought with spies and proxies, with hundreds of millions of dollars in aid money and ominous diplomatic threats, reports AP.
The fight pits nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan against one another in a battle for influence that will almost certainly gain traction as the clock ticks down toward Americas military withdrawal, which President Barack Obama has announced will begin next year.
The clash has already sparked bloody militant attacks, and American officials fear the region could become further destabilized. With Pakistani intelligence maintaining ties to Afghanistans Taliban militants, India has threatened to draw Iran, Russia and other nations into the competition if an anti-Indian government comes to power in Kabul.
This is a delicate game going on here, said Daoud Muradian, a senior adviser to the Afghan Foreign Ministry. He spoke wearily about how Afghanistan, a mountainous crossroads linking South Asia, the Middle East and Central Asia, has for centuries often been little more than a stage for other countries power struggles. We dont want to be forced to choose between India and Pakistan.
For both India and Pakistan, Afghanistan is an exceedingly valuable prize.
To India, ties with Kabul mean new trade routes, access to Central Asias vast energy reserves and a way to stave off the rise of Islamic militancy. It means the chance for New Delhi to undermine Islamabad as it nurtures its superpower aspirations by expanding its regional influence.
While Pakistan is also desperate for new energy supplies, its Afghan policy has been largely shaped by the view that Afghanistan is its natural ally. The two countries share a long border, overwhelmingly Muslim populations and deep ethnic links.
Then there is fear. Pakistan and India have already fought three wars over the past seven decades, and Pakistani military leaders are terrified of someday being trapped militarily between India on one border and a pro-India Afghanistan on the other.
We cant afford an unfriendly government in Afghanistan, said Mohammad Sadiq, Pakistans ambassador to Afghanistan.
The shadow war began in earnest in the wake of the 2001 US invasion, when the Taliban government was forced from power and New Delhi began courting Afghanistans new leaders. It was a move into a country that Islamabad, a fierce supporter of the Taliban government, had seen as its diplomatic territory for two decades. But New Delhi quickly became a close ally of President Hamid Karzai, who will travel to India early next week for talks aimed at strengthening ties between the two countries.
On the surface, both India and Pakistan are bringing help to a country that desperately needs it.
New Delhi has built highways in the western deserts and brought electricity to Kabul. It is constructing a new Parliament building and offers free medical care in clinics across Afghanistan. Despite its immense spending needs India has widespread poverty and staggering infrastructure problems despite its rapidly growing economy it has given more than $1.3 billion in development aid.
That, in turn, has sparked Pakistani efforts, with Islamabad spending about $350 million on everything from school textbooks to buses.
But this is far from pure humanitarianism.
Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top US and Nato commander in Afghanistan, laid out the situation bluntly: While Indian activities largely benefit the Afghan people, increasing Indian influence in Afghanistan is likely to exacerbate regional tensions and encourage Pakistani countermeasures, he warned in a report late last year.
Heightened tensions are the last thing the US wants. The Afghan war has killed more than 1,800 coalition soldiers more than 1,100 of them Americans. More than 2,400 Afghan civilians were killed just last year.
If the competition over Afghanistan is rooted in a cocktail of issues, much of it revolves around the Taliban.
New Delhis perceptions of modern Afghanistan have been molded by its memories of the 1996-2001 Taliban government, the fundamentalist Muslim regime which rose to power with Pakistans help.
It was a time when New Delhi was openly despised in Kabul, when anti-India insurgents trained in Afghan camps and the hijackers of an Indian airliner were welcomed here as heroes. Even after the Taliban government fell, Pakistans powerful spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, retained links to the Taliban insurgency now battling the American-led forces and the Karzai government, in case the Taliban ever return to power.
But if theres one thing New Delhi does not want, its another militant Islamic government in Kabul.
We want the stabilization of Afghanistan because it is directly related to our security. Plain and simple, said Jayant Prasad, the Indian ambassador to Afghanistan.
DAWN.COM | World | Indo-Pakistan proxy war heats up in Afghanistan
The fight pits nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan against one another in a battle for influence that will almost certainly gain traction as the clock ticks down toward Americas military withdrawal, which President Barack Obama has announced will begin next year.
The clash has already sparked bloody militant attacks, and American officials fear the region could become further destabilized. With Pakistani intelligence maintaining ties to Afghanistans Taliban militants, India has threatened to draw Iran, Russia and other nations into the competition if an anti-Indian government comes to power in Kabul.
This is a delicate game going on here, said Daoud Muradian, a senior adviser to the Afghan Foreign Ministry. He spoke wearily about how Afghanistan, a mountainous crossroads linking South Asia, the Middle East and Central Asia, has for centuries often been little more than a stage for other countries power struggles. We dont want to be forced to choose between India and Pakistan.
For both India and Pakistan, Afghanistan is an exceedingly valuable prize.
To India, ties with Kabul mean new trade routes, access to Central Asias vast energy reserves and a way to stave off the rise of Islamic militancy. It means the chance for New Delhi to undermine Islamabad as it nurtures its superpower aspirations by expanding its regional influence.
While Pakistan is also desperate for new energy supplies, its Afghan policy has been largely shaped by the view that Afghanistan is its natural ally. The two countries share a long border, overwhelmingly Muslim populations and deep ethnic links.
Then there is fear. Pakistan and India have already fought three wars over the past seven decades, and Pakistani military leaders are terrified of someday being trapped militarily between India on one border and a pro-India Afghanistan on the other.
We cant afford an unfriendly government in Afghanistan, said Mohammad Sadiq, Pakistans ambassador to Afghanistan.
The shadow war began in earnest in the wake of the 2001 US invasion, when the Taliban government was forced from power and New Delhi began courting Afghanistans new leaders. It was a move into a country that Islamabad, a fierce supporter of the Taliban government, had seen as its diplomatic territory for two decades. But New Delhi quickly became a close ally of President Hamid Karzai, who will travel to India early next week for talks aimed at strengthening ties between the two countries.
On the surface, both India and Pakistan are bringing help to a country that desperately needs it.
New Delhi has built highways in the western deserts and brought electricity to Kabul. It is constructing a new Parliament building and offers free medical care in clinics across Afghanistan. Despite its immense spending needs India has widespread poverty and staggering infrastructure problems despite its rapidly growing economy it has given more than $1.3 billion in development aid.
That, in turn, has sparked Pakistani efforts, with Islamabad spending about $350 million on everything from school textbooks to buses.
But this is far from pure humanitarianism.
Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top US and Nato commander in Afghanistan, laid out the situation bluntly: While Indian activities largely benefit the Afghan people, increasing Indian influence in Afghanistan is likely to exacerbate regional tensions and encourage Pakistani countermeasures, he warned in a report late last year.
Heightened tensions are the last thing the US wants. The Afghan war has killed more than 1,800 coalition soldiers more than 1,100 of them Americans. More than 2,400 Afghan civilians were killed just last year.
If the competition over Afghanistan is rooted in a cocktail of issues, much of it revolves around the Taliban.
New Delhis perceptions of modern Afghanistan have been molded by its memories of the 1996-2001 Taliban government, the fundamentalist Muslim regime which rose to power with Pakistans help.
It was a time when New Delhi was openly despised in Kabul, when anti-India insurgents trained in Afghan camps and the hijackers of an Indian airliner were welcomed here as heroes. Even after the Taliban government fell, Pakistans powerful spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, retained links to the Taliban insurgency now battling the American-led forces and the Karzai government, in case the Taliban ever return to power.
But if theres one thing New Delhi does not want, its another militant Islamic government in Kabul.
We want the stabilization of Afghanistan because it is directly related to our security. Plain and simple, said Jayant Prasad, the Indian ambassador to Afghanistan.
DAWN.COM | World | Indo-Pakistan proxy war heats up in Afghanistan
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