LEADER ARTICLE: Keep Up The Good Work |
LEADER ARTICLE: Keep Up The Good Work 12 Sep 2008, 0105 hrs On June 24, the Afghan authorities informed the Indian embassy in Kabul that a suicide bombing of the embassy premises was imminent. Within hours, work to barricade the embassy began. Given the location of the embassy in the middle of a crowded shopping area and directly opposite the Afghan passport office, completely blocking the thoroughfare was impossible. Then as we all know a suicide bomber struck on July 7. Unfortunately, the gates of the embassy had just opened for a car carrying two officials. Both these officers, two security personnel and 54 others died in the bomb attack. But thanks to the barricading work undertaken earlier, the entire embassy was saved from destruction. The New York Times reported on September 7 that American officials had confirmed that the ISI had helped Taliban commander Jalaluddin Haqqani&39;s fighters to bomb the Indian embassy in Kabul. The attack on the embassy followed attacks on Indian consulates in Kandahar and Jalalabad and on road construction crews building the strategic Delaram-Zaranj road, which will link landlocked Afghanistan to the Iranian port of Chah Bahar, depriving Pakistan of being Afghanistan&39;s sole outlet to the sea. The Americans and NATO could become more effective if Iran and Russia augment their efforts to stabilise Afghanistan. Undeterred by the bombing, India&39;s ambassador in Kabul, Jayant Prasad, and his colleagues set about their work. Within six days the embassy began issuing visas to the public. Despite being told that those who so wished could leave Afghanistan, not a single embassy official chose to do so. Moreover, the estimated 3,700 Indians now working across Afghanistan in development projects with minimal security made it clear that they would not be deterred by terrorist violence. They are our unsung heroes in one of the most effective foreign economic assistance programmes India has ever undertaken. It is because of their efforts that in a recent poll in Afghanistan, 80 per cent of those polled expressed "strong approval" of India and its assistance programme - a development that the Taliban and its mentors in Rawalpindi evidently find unbearable. India&39;s imprint in Afghanistan is visible across the country. Over 400 Tata buses and 200 minibuses gifted by India ply in major towns and cities. Over one million children benefit from high-protein biscuits supplied by India through the World Food Programme. The Indira Gandhi hospital in Kabul, destroyed by the Taliban, has been reopened. Five Indian medical teams provide medical care to thousands of Afghans across the country. Afghanistan has restarted its airlines with three Indian Airbus aircraft. Indian engineers from the Power Grid Corporation have braved the cold and terrorist attacks to construct a 220 KV transmission line to Kabul across rugged mountainous terrain. Indian engineers are reconstructing the 42 MW Salma dam project in the Herat province. Indian technicians have restored and modernised telecommunication networks across Afghanistan. Over 2,000 Afghan nationals have undergone training in India in diverse fields. The Indian assistance programme is today internationally recognised as the most people-oriented and cost-effective programme in Afghanistan, an achievement New Delhi can be proud of. One senses deep anger across Afghanistan at what is perceived as unwarranted Pakistani assistance to the Taliban. Not just Afghans, but even the UN, US and NATO officials in Afghanistan are angry at having been "double-crossed" by Pervez Musharraf. Equally, while there is recognition that Afghanistan would collapse and see the return of the Taliban if American and NATO forces leave, there is growing anger at casualties from indiscriminate use of air power and crude house-to-house searches by US forces. The Americans have belatedly commenced arming and equipping the Afghan National Army, which is becoming an increasingly effective national force. The Afghan army could, over the next six to eight years, take on the bulk of anti-Taliban operations. But, other institutions like the Afghan National Police remain ineffective, corrupt and unpopular. The Taliban controls large areas of rural Afghanistan. With Afghanistan headed for presidential elections in 2009, this exercise could hardly be called democratic as the constitution excludes political parties from participation in national life. The main worry for Afghanistan is across the border. Tensions along Afghanistan&39;s borders with Pakistan are set to escalate as the Americans appear determined to hit at Taliban and al-Qaeda hideouts and bases in Pakistan&39;s tribal areas. Pakistani forces, which continue cross-border support to the Taliban, would also face American retribution. But for the international effort in Afghanistan to succeed, it is imperative for Indians to continue the good work they are doing. At the same time, as evidence grows of ISI involvement in the embassy bombing of July 7, India should prepare the ground to get the Pakistan army and the ISI declared as international terrorist organisations by the UN Security Council. The writer, who was India&39;s high commissioner to Pakistan, was recently in Afghanistan. |
High Commission of India Kampala, Uganda |