Cautious, New Delhi puts Kabul medical mission on hold, for now [Suicide Blasts]

The Indian Express ^ | 5 March 2010 | The Indian Express

[James C. Bennett]

National Security Advisor (NSA) Shivshankar Menon today assured President Hamid Karzai that New Delhi will continue its developmental efforts in Afghanistan. But India has temporarily suspended its medical mission in Kabul that was the target of a suicide attack last Friday.

While Menon, in his interaction with Karzai and top Afghan officials, made it clear that reconstruction efforts will not be affected, sources said India will take a more cautious approach after the third major attack on its establishments here in the last two years.

The Karzai government assured Menon that security for Indian establishments across Afghanistan would be increased and extra efforts would be made to protect Indian citizens working on various developmental projects.

Even though India has no complaints against the security arrangements — an attack on the embassy last year was after all thwarted by a group of Afghan policemen who were killed in the blast — it has decided to be more measured in its approach to ensure the safety of its citizens.

After the attack last week killed a doctor, Major Laishram Jyotin Singh, and seriously injured two others, the medical mission has been temporarily suspended and all doctors and paramedical staff working at the Indira Gandhi Children’s Hospital have been asked to return home.

The mission had been treating children and disbursing free medication at the largest children’s hospital in this city. It will remain suspended pending a security review.

With a telemedicine facility already being set up at the children’s hospital that connects it to hospitals in Delhi and Chandigarh, the number of doctors and paramedical staff deputed to Afghanistan could be brought down.

Presently, a seven member team that included a pharmacist and an anaesthesiologist was working at the children’s hospital. Besides Kabul, Indian doctors are also treating patients in four other cities including Mazar-e-Sharif and Jalalabad.

The Indians are aware that the Afghan government will scale up security measures and will depute adequate police strength whenever requested but there is also realization that it would be foolhardy to expose Indian citizens who are clearly being targeted.

New Delhi will look at additional security measures, including the possibility of shrinking the presence of Indian citizens in developmental projects that have been sponsored by the government.

India is also looking to quickly wrap up ongoing projects, including the power grid mission that provides electricity to Kabul, the construction of the new Afghan parliament and the Salma dam hydroelectric project in Herat, to minimize risk to Indian citizens. The projects are due for completion in the next few months.

While the government in New Delhi is clear that it will not be cowed down by attacks that are designed to inhibit its reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan, there is realization that given the current security scenario it will need to make its own security arrangements to protect citizens.