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| India-Pakistan |
| Afghan road gives India a boost |
| 2009-02-11 |
| Last month, India celebrated a road-building triumph that went unnoticed in much of the world. The new highway linked the Afghan towns of Zaranj, on the Iran border, and Delaram, 217 kilometres to the northeast. It was constructed at the cost of six Indian and 129 Afghan lives, victims of attacks by an increasingly muscular Taliban insurgency. And it was hailed as a landmark in co-operation between India and Afghanistan. Its strategic value -- connecting the Iranian port of Chahabar with major Afghan cities -- set alarm bells ringing in neighbouring Pakistan, whose relations with India are at a low point after Islamic militants carried out a massive attack on Mumbai in November. An attack yesterday on a Khyber Pass bridge closed down the vital NATO supply line between Afghanistan and the Pakistani port of Karachi, strengthening conviction that it is time to seek an alternative in a country where dirt tracks are more common than paving. A NATO official hinted that transit through Iran, once condemned as part of the "axis of evil," might be an alternative to the escalating risks of Pakistan's lawless borders. If the Indian-built road becomes part of a new transit route, it would be an added boost to relations between India and the West, even as the U.S. cools toward Pakistan. "It's a Pakistani nightmare," said Kamran Bokhari, director of Middle East analysis for the U.S.-based intelligence analysis company Stratfor. "India believes the only way to neutralize Pakistan and keep it in the box, is to have good relations with the Afghans. "But Pakistan's situation gets worse and worse." A series of projects that have made India Afghanistan's largest regional supporter. Since the Taliban were defeated in 2001, India has spent $1.2 billion (U.S.) in Afghanistan on projects ranging from dams and roads to backing for international agencies' nutritional campaigns. It has about 4,000 aid and security officials working in the country, and has trained Afghan police officers. Indian aid is visible on the ground. Hungry Afghan school children nibble high-nutrition biscuits between classes. Once-parched villages are rejuvenated by newly dug tube wells. Homes that were in the dark are connected to power sources with the construction of transmission lines. In a hearts-and-minds campaign, India is on the home stretch. Pakistan, which tried to shore up its security and influence in a hostile neighbourhood after the Soviet invasion of 1979, backed Islamist insurgents who have added to Afghans' misery. Afghanistan is only one forum for rounds of rivalry between India and Pakistan that began with the partition of India in 1947 and continued through a succession of bloody wars, including conflicts over Muslim-dominated Kashmir. A nuclear arms race raised the stakes of the conflict. But Pakistan's backing for the militants, including the Taliban, has sparked outbreaks of violence that have killed hundreds of Pakistanis, including former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. Now, says GTA-based security and defence analyst Sunil Ram, "Pakistan is using both Afghanistan and Kashmir as a means to get rid of its more radical elements, sending them on a jihad." Some are suspected of travelling to India and perpetrating November's Mumbai attack, which has been called "India's 9/11." But, says Ramesh Thakur, director of the Balsillie School of International Affairs: "Indians find it difficult to accept that the government is serious about tackling what is a common threat -- a threat that is consuming Pakistan from within." While India ponders how to respond to the attacks amid fierce criticism from its own angry citizens, it is continuing its support for Afghanistan's reconstruction. Meanwhile, says Bokhari, "Pakistan's Islamist project has backfired, they're being attacked by their own creations, the U.S. is on their tail, and Afghanistan still has a hostile regime." |
| Posted by:john frum |