Iqbal Khan
AFGHAN President Ashraf Ghani ordered the military on 12 May to move to ‘offensive mode’, away from a defensive stance it had taken as part of efforts to reduce violence in the country. Orders came a day after coordinated attacks by unknown militants in Kabul and Nangarhar. Taliban have not carried out large attacks in Afghan cities since they signed the peace agreement. Under the agreement, the Taliban promised not to target forces from the US-led coalition, but made no such pledge toward Afghan troops. Origin of some of such earlier attacks was traced back to Daesh’s India chapter. Such recent developments related to Afghanistan with Indian connections are noteworthy. For example India launched a terrorist attack on a Sikh Gurdwara on March 25, 2020. The man speaking in Hindi in a heavy Malyalee accent, who later appeared on an ISIS or Daesh video, was identified as Abu Khalid al-Hindi, who “planted explosives in the Sikh prayer area before opening fire, killing 50 Sikhs, Hindu and Afghan security personnel.” According to reports in the media, Khalid-Al-Hindi is actually Muhammad Muhsin from Kasaragod, southern Indian state of Kerala.
Pakistan “strongly condemned the inhuman and cowardly terrorist attack on a medical facility in Kabul and suicide attack on a funeral in Nangarhar province, resulting in the loss of so many precious lives. These terrorist acts are particularly despicable as they take place in the holy month of Ramzan and at a time when Afghanistan is grappling with COVID-19 pandemic”. A statement by the Foreign Office said. The US has condemned the attacks in Afghanistan. “In an unconscionable assault, gunmen seized one of Kabul’s busiest hospitals, which housed a maternity ward run by Doctors without Borders. In the hospital, the terrorists took the lives of at least 13 innocent people, including newborn babies, new mothers and health care workers. Any attack on innocents is unforgivable, but to attack infants and women in labour in the sanctuary of a hospital is an act of sheer evil. Separately, in the eastern province of Nangarhar, a suicide bomber attacked the funeral of a local police commander, leaving at least 26 people dead and more than 68 wounded.
“In order to provide security for public places and to thwart attacks and threats from the Taliban and other terrorist groups, I am ordering Afghan security forces to switch from an active defence mode to an offensive one and to start their operations against the enemies,” President Ashraf Ghani said in a televised speech. This is against the US stance regarding lowering of violence by all warring factions to move ahead for implementing the February 29 Afghanistan Peace Agreement signed between US and Taliban, concurrently the Afghan government had also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with US for implementing the agreement. Though Taliban have denied responsibility for the bloodshed, Afghan officials appeared to connect the two attacks with rising Taliban violence in other parts of the country. “This is not peace, nor its beginnings,” Afghanistan’s National Security Adviser Hamdullah Mohib said in a post on Twitter. He said that Taliban “subcontracted their terror to other entities” and that there is “little point in continuing to engage Taliban in ‘peace talks.’?”
The US chief diplomat for Afghan peace, Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad recently toured New Delhi, Doha and Islamabad to engage directly with officials in the respective capitals to review the ongoing efforts seeking a political end to Afghan conflict. Khalilzad travels to Kabul and Islamabad frequently, but of late he has added New Delhi in his travel schedules, raising questions about what prompted the US to reach out to India when it played little or no role in the Afghan peace process. The US has reached out to India because it fears that New Delhi is creating impediments in the way of intra-Afghan talks. These sources believe India was behind President Ashraf Ghani’s reluctance to abide by the peace deal including the prisoners swap agreed in the US-Taliban deal. Delay in the prisoner exchange has put on hold the start of critical intra-Afghan talks, which were originally scheduled for March 10. Presumably, Khalilzad travelled to New Delhi with a brief, urging India not to create hurdles in the Afghan peace efforts. Pakistan considers India as a spoiler, a view tacitly endorsed by the US when Washington kept New Delhi at bay while it was negotiating a peace deal with the Taliban. But Khalilzad in his recent visit to New Delhi wanted India to play a role and even suggested India to speak directly to the Afghan Taliban.
India is the main political ally of Ashraf Ghani after his controversial victory in the presidential elections. India fears that the peace deal in Afghanistan will erode its influence while Ghani also clearly sees his political demise if the US-Taliban agreement succeeds. This common cause has brought India and Ghani on the same page in opposing the deal with Taliban. Nonetheless, as of now, the US is keen to see this deal succeeding and hence is willing to make all out efforts. Pakistan is not comfortable with the US outreach to India on Afghanistan. Pakistan feels that this is not the time for talking about Indian role but it was time to focus on implementation of the deal. “At the moment what is important [is] how to proceed ahead with the Afghan peace process. The role of India is a secondary issue,” said a Pakistani official. Pakistan has long viewed Indian role in Afghanistan with suspicion and has presented irrefutable proofs of New Delhi using the Afghan soil to create trouble in Pakistan.
—The writer is a freelance columnist based in Islamabad.
