Why Indian Troops Are In Afghanistan

http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htterr/articles/20060217.aspx

February 17, 2006: India is sending 300 special police (Indo-Tibetan Border Police, or ITBP) to Afghanistan to help guard Indians working there on reconstruction projects. Eighty of the ITBP are already in southern Afghanistan, guarding Indians helping to build roads there. Taliban terrorists have attacked the Indian workers several times, with gunfire and bombs. Last year, twenty ITBP were sent to Kabul to guard the Indian embassy.

India has been very friendly to the new Afghan government, taking advantage of Afghan fear that Pakistan is again interfering with the internal affairs of Afghanistan. Most Afghans blame (or credit) Pakistani military intelligence (the ISI) for helping organize the Taliban, and assisting them in taking over the country in the 1990s. Pakistani interference in Afghan affairs has gone on for a long time. From Pakistan's point of view, this is self-defense, mainly because there are more Pushtuns (who comprise 40 percent of all Afghans) in Pakistan, than in Afghanistan. The Pushtun (or "Pathans," as they are still called in Pakistan) have long been a problem for the rest of Pakistan. The Pushtun tribes have long raided to the south, sometimes getting as far as the Indian border. This has been going on for thousands of years, so it's not a new problem. While the Afghan Pushtuns are in the Afghan government (president Karzai is a Pushtun), in Pakistan they are a smaller, and more troublesome minority. There is more support for Islamic terrorism among Pushtuns, on both sides of the border, than anywhere else in the region. This is mainly because of the traditional conservatism of the tribes, and distrust of outsiders (anyone who isn't a Pushtun).

Pakistan sees the Indian ITBP in Afghanistan as part of a plot to assist tribal rebels in Baluchistan. In some ways, the Baluchi tribes of southwest Pakistan, are even more trouble than the Pushtuns. Several Baluchi tribes are currently in open rebellion against the Pakistani government, and the Pakistanis see it as only natural that the Indians would aid them. There is little hard evidence of this, but the belief persists. The Baluchis are similar to the Pushtuns (an Indo-Aryan people, related to the Iranians and Europeans), right down to the Islamic conservatism and suspicion of outsiders (including Pushtuns.) Osama bin Laden is believed hiding out among sympathetic Pushtun or Baluchi tribesmen. Both groups are big fans of bin Laden and al Qaeda.

Kabul blast: 4 Indians among 41 killed

http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/jul/07kabul.htm

Last Updated: July 07, 2008 14:13 IST

Four Indians among forty-one people were killed in a suicide blast near the Indian embassy in Kabul on Monday.

The suicide bomber exploded two embassy vehicles as they were entering the premises, sources said, the intensity of the blast blowing off the gates of the embassy. Some buildings inside were also damaged in the blast.

Four Indian nationals were killed the suicide attack, Indian Ambassador Jayan Prasad said.

A defence attache of the rank of brigadier and an Indian Foreign Service officer were among those killed.

In the wake of the suicide attack, a high-level meeting was called in New Delhi by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee to discuss the situation.

Mukherjee deliberated with Defence Minister A K Antony and senior officials of the external affairs ministry about the situation, sources said.

The meeting was called soon after the suicide attack.

Meanwhile, India on Monday strongly condemned the terror attack at its embassy in Kabul and asserted that such "cowardly" acts would not deter it from fulfilling commitments to the government and people of Afghanistan.

The external affairs ministry said casualties were feared among the Indian personnel and details are being ascertained.

"We are in touch with the ambassador who is supervising arrangements for medical assistance," External Affairs Ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna said in a statement.

"The government of India strongly condemns this cowardly terrorist attack on its diplomatic mission in Afghanistan," he said.

"Such acts of terror will not deter us from fulfilling our commitments to the government and people of Afghanistan," the spokesman said.

About 3,000 Indians are working on various reconstruction and developmental projects in Afghanistan and they have often been subjected to attacks by Taliban.