India now has more than a hundred "Consulates" in Afghanistan. The level of violence has exponentially increased in Pakistan as India increases her foot print in Afghanistan.

What were whispers, and hush hush secret memorandum has become a casophony and a crescendo about external factors which are causing havoc in Pakistan. Malik defines this well. We have added maps to highlight the trail of terror that Malik defined.

What amazes us is the dearth of voices from within Pakistan that discuss these issues. President Musharraf has not shouted from the top of the Hindu Kush that these lands are being used to transport terror into Baluchistan and other parts of Pakistan.

India a secret player in Afghanistan

Jawayria Malik

© Unknown
RAW, India's branch of the CIA

Afghanistan has a long and tumultuous history of outside powers using its rugged terrain as a chessboard for the 'Great Game'. This 'Great Game' has been revisited in Afghanistan and one of the chasing players this time is India. In recent years, Indian increased diplomatic presence and enhanced economic assistance to Afghanistan has not only threatened the security of Pakistan but also played an effective role in jeopardising the Pak-Afghan cooperation to contain the flow of insurgency in Afghanistan.

India is good times friend of Afghanistan. She welcomed the communist Saur Revolution in Kabul in 1978 and sided with former Soviet Union and is equally responsible for the destruction of Afghanistan. Indian influence which started trailing in 1979 was entirely lost in Afghanistan in 1992 and during Taliban rule. The fall of Taliban regime and the return of Northern Alliance as a dominant partner in present government in Afghanistan provided India another opportunity to regain the lost influence in the country. Since then she is trying to dominate Afghanistan. In her bid to get a firm and lasting foothold in post-Taliban era, she is leaving no stone unturned to perpetuate her presence there. Here the point to ponder is: why Indians are so desperate to have cordial relations with Afghanistan?

It goes without saying that India has no legitimate role in Afghanistan but the dream to confront Pakistan. She is making all-out efforts, to prevent Pakistan from having influence in Afghanistan, by aggravating anti­-Pakistan sentiments among Afghan people. Apparently, Indian intention could be economic gains but real objective remains destabilising Pakistan.

Indian diplomatic missions in Afghanistan have a role in fomenting trouble in Pakistan's tribal areas. Indian consulates in Jalalabad, Kandahar, Herat and Mazar-e-Sharif and their embassy in Kabul are indulged in clandestine activities inside Pakistan in general and FATA and Balochistan in particular. The intelligence network in Afghanistan which is established by India is fully operational.

The Marines from Multiple One (India company) based at Lashkargah, a forward operation base, has been undertaking missions in Balochistan by supporting the Baluchistan Liberation Army (BLA). Their main targets include Chinese working in the province, particularly at Gwadar, Saindak, and Hub.

RAW operatives have established many training camps inside Afghanistan to aggravate the activities of Baloch nationalists with an objective of transforming it into a full bloom insurgency.

Recently, with its presence in Kabul, New Delhi is encircling Islamabad with highly trained commandoes. She has deployed 143 highly trained commandoes in Afghanistan besides stationing of a full-fledged team to train Afghan and Uzbek forces. This is in addition to the already deployed 254 Indo-Tibetan Border Police Force (ITBP) soldiers to provide security to Indian construction companies. India claims that these troops are there to protect Indian workers but in reality, these workers are actively supporting the militants in Balochistan and FATA.

Besides Indian ingress into Afghanistan through its consulates to destabilise Pakistan, she has also managed to influence the political stratum of Afghanistan as well. In this context, Afghan President Hamid Karzai has been playing the evil game of blaming the Pakistan government, at the behest of Indians, to hide its own weakness to establish the writ of his government beyond Kabul. It is out in the open that the government of Afghanistan is in fact a 'B' team of Indian intelligence agencies as instead of working for the rehabilitation of the war-ravaged country and betterment of people she is dancing to the tune of its Indian masters. Ironically, Afghan government has no explanation for mysterious spending of the millions of dollars it received in aid and no answer for the worsening situation of law and order in Afghanistan except to accuse Pakistan for their inept policies.

Recently Indian Minister for External Affairs, Pranab Mukherjee, in an interview to a television channel said that Taliban militia had established training camps along the southern border of Afghanistan which are being used as launching pads to push infiltrators across the border while expressing concern over fragile security situation and the growing influence of Taliban militia in Afghanistan.

In view of Indian government's concern over security situation in Afghanistan it becomes imperative to bring on record the network of terrorist training camps set up by Indian intelligence agency RAW inside Afghanistan, including at the Afghan military base of Qushila Jadid, in Southern Helmand province; in the Panjshir Valley and also at Khahak and Hassan Killies in western Nimroz province.

India's trained terrorists intrude into Pakistan's territory and commit serious acts of terrorism such as mass killings, bombings, torture, and intimidation of civilians. This is proved by the reports when Indian national namely Rohit Vashisht was captured by the Afghan police on 3 September 2007 in district Zarai of Kandahar province for financing Taliban militants in the region. Rohit revealed that he had been financing Taliban to convince them to carry out suicide attacks against Pakistan and NATO forces.

He further divulged that he was successful to a great extent in convincing Taliban to locate and identify their real enemy (Pakistan) responsible for the mess in the region. Rohit carried maps of Pakistani cities including Peshawar, Rawalpindi, and Islamabad. Police also recovered names of various Taliban leaders and their addresses with whom he possibly met or contacted during his present stay or his probable previous visit to the area in the past.

Another incident of this kind happened when an Indian doctor working as member of a medical team in Jalalabad was caught red­handed for instigating patients to work for India. These Indian nationals were repatriated quietly to India due to the considerable influence from senior officials of the Indian Embassy including the ambassador.

New Delhi's intense diplomatic presence has facilitated her to be one of the main aid suppliers towards Afghanistan's reconstruction. Massive economic appearance of India, too, is not without reason. In the garb of development projects, India is cultivating its agents in the bordering areas of Afghanistan for stirring strife in areas straddling the Pak-Afghan border.

In a nutshell, Indian presence in Afghanistan whether diplomatic, military or economic has less to do with reconstruction and more to do with keeping the turf conducive for the workings of RAW against Pakistan. It is said that "ambition is the grand enemy of peace" and it is for Afghan government to realise that Indian expansionism is actually keeping Afghanistan into continuous state of turmoil. The security situation and the insurgency issue in Afghanistan are not going to be solved until the Indian influence on the Afghan government is removed. Only the closer Pak­Afghan cooperation will help contain the growing power of insurgents but since the Indians have entirely different goals, the efforts will not bear fruit. The Karzai Government should better avoid acting as a henchman or a pawn for New Delhi before it is too late.