Indians scale down in Afghanistan

[ameer219]

KABUL: India has suspended medical aid and teaching programmes in Afghanistan, where Indian businesses and charities are slashing staff over fears they are increasingly targeted by militants, reports AFP.

Kabul-based Indians believe they were the specific targets of three recent attacks in the Afghan capital, including a February 26 bomb and gun assault on a guesthouse that killed 17 people, among them seven Indians.

Indian charity Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA), which promoted economic independence for Afghan women, said it had pulled all staff from Afghanistan.

“At the moment there is no one on behalf of SEWA in Kabul because after the 26 February disaster we were advised to come back (to India),” said SEWA's Afghanistan coordinator Pratibha Pandiya.

Indian officials said a December 15 suicide car bombing that killed eight people also targeted Indians, although former Afghan first vice president Ahmad Zia Massoud had a home in the same street.

The manager of an IT company that many Indians believe was the target, said his Indian staff had since halved to 11.

“We cannot stop people from leaving and we cannot guarantee anyone's safety,” the manager, also an Indian, said on condition of anonymity and asking that his company also not be named.

“Our office and residences are like fortresses,” he said, adding that extra security promised by the Afghan government had yet to materialise.

Indians in Kabul told AFP they see themselves as victims of a struggle with Pakistan for influence in Afghanistan, which is fuelling attacks on Indian interests in the country.

The Indian embassy was hit on October 8 last year, with the deaths of 17 people, and on July 7, 2008 when more than 60 people were killed.

The Pakistan government denies supporting militants, pointing to its own fight against the Taliban, and says it is committed to peace in Afghanistan.

Since a US-led invasion ended the Taliban's 1996-2001 regime, India has committed 1.2 billion dollars to Afghanistan, mainly aid for social services including health and education, making it one of the biggest regional donors.

The two countries are historically close and many urban Afghans speak Hindi and Urdu learned watching Bollywood movies.

About 4,000 Indians are building roads, sanitation projects and power lines in the volatile country. India is building the new Afghan parliament.

Doctors were also recruited from the Indian military for India's medical mission (IMM) to Afghanistan, which focused on five cities, providing free treatment and medicine for 30,000 Afghans each month, an embassy official said.

The IMM had been temporarily suspended, he said, as those members of the 11-man team who survived the attack were repatriated for treatment.

“The IMM in Kabul was temporarily suspended from February 26 when a doctor got killed and others seriously injured in the attack and were flown to Delhi by a special plane,” he said.

Under the IMM, 25 doctors and paramedics were based in Kabul, Herat, Kandahar, Jalalabd and Mazar-I-Sharif.

The head of the Indira Ghandi Children's Hospital in Kabul, run by IMM, said sick Afghan children were the main victims of the militant attacks on Indians.

“The attack has done nothing but deprive people coming from far provinces of free treatment and medicine,” said Noorulhaq Yousufzai.

English-teaching programmes had been also suspended, the embassy official said, as two of three Indian teachers staying at the Aria guesthouse died as a result of the February 26 attack.

India brings in hundreds of Afghans on scholarships each year.

Another Indian official, also speaking anonymously, said Pakistani militants had been caught casing diplomatic residences before the February 26 attack.

“The professional manner of the planning, the fact that the Taliban did not know about it for three or four hours, that the attackers were speaking Urdu — all these things make us conclude it was Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT),” he said.

LeT was also blamed for the Mumbai attacks in late 2008, although it denied any involvement in that assault or the February Kabul bombing.


DAWN.COM | World | Indians scale down in Afghanistan, fearing more attacks

 

[Donatello]

Its not about gains for decades India have supported weak and needy nations.

Even when we were not strong or facing financial problems.

Its about humanity, peace and future of Afghanistan.


And you are absolutely wrong when you say that US/NATO do the same we don't bomb only heal.

We are working for children building schools and hospitals.

We are working for youth providing them vocational training and making them employable.

We are working for future of Afghanistan building Dams, Roads and Power Plants.

My post didn't mean to accuse India of bombing them, but merely that there is much to Afghanistan for strategic gains than just helping them on humanitarian basis. Of course US and NATO forces wanted a presence in the region and so bombed those innocent people. Then realized to win 'hearts and minds' they need to help the civilians as well. Why did USA go into Afghanistan?
Because it was a Al-Qaeda safe haven, and find Osama. 8 years later, both are still at large.

Many in Pakistan take India's 'Humanitarian' approach a bit too seriously for they have a right to do so.

Talking about India helping poor nations, there are many places within India that have no access to such efforts that their government is imparting on the Afghans. Why would you leave your own people who suffer in favor of the afghans?

That is what raises questions in the minds of Pakistanis, and that is one reason why the ISI, Pakistan Military and Politicians all want a seat at the Afghan end game negotiating table and keep India out of it, and for the time being, NATO and US seem to support that notion.

The question, is it worth the risk of Indian lives being lost in these assaults/bombings, if India sees that there may not be any strategic gains there which they may have envisioned years ago when USA it self wanted to involve India in the rebuilding process?

 

[Awesome]

There haven't been more than a handful of attacks, nothing compared to what the Americans and other countries have suffered in Afghanistan.

I think its just an excuse to run since they know once the Americans leave, their intelligence agents would be easy pickings for Pakistan.

 

[Justin Joseph]

There haven't been more than a handful of attacks, nothing compared to what the Americans and other countries have suffered in Afghanistan.

I think its just an excuse to run since they know once the Americans leave, their intelligence agents would be easy pickings for Pakistan.

Is that so, then why your prime minister to military to hafeez seed to zaid hamid are paranoid by Indian intelligence agencies.

Your statement is running against the propaganda of your government and agencies.

Why they blame Indian agencies for each and everything in pakistan.

If you can get our boys in Afghanistan easily then why can't you done the same very easily in Pakistan.

And if you can't do it in pakistan as you always blame our agencies, then how you will do it in Afghanistan??

 

[Awesome]

Is that so, then why your prime minister to military to hafeez seed to zaid hamid are paranoid by Indian intelligence agencies.

Your statement is running against the propaganda of your government and agencies.

Why they blame Indian agencies for each and everything in pakistan.

If you can get our boys in Afghanistan easily then why can't you done the same very easily in Pakistan.

And if you can't do it in pakistan as you always blame our agencies, then how you will do it in Afghanistan??

This is how...

Step 1: We will go into Afghanistan

Step 2: Kill all Indian terrorists.

Step 3: Come back, treat at Bhaiyay ke Kabab on me.

We're complaining since the Americans are in the way.

 

[champion]

there is no doubt obama policy is working against USA and the reslut till be seen in future

isreal, india, china are just moving away from usa and obama is busy how to make happy muslim coutries

obama is like a person who speak good but work nothing

 

[champion]

This is how...

Step 1: We will go into Afghanistan

Step 2: Kill all Indian terrorists.

Step 3: Come back, treat at Bhaiyay ke Kabab on me.

We're complaining since the Americans are in the way.

same i think but just change pakistani in place of indian

how good for world peace

 

[HariSeldon]

This is how...

Step 1: We will go into Afghanistan

Step 2: Kill all Indian terrorists.

Step 3: Come back, treat at Bhaiyay ke Kabab on me.

We're complaining since the Americans are in the way.

Finish your kebab before AF is back on its feet. After that you have to guard both of your borders. You were not able to resovle Durand line issue when Taliban was in power. Any group moderate then Taliban will not forget what you have done to them.
They will remember the Indian doc who use to treat there children was killed by your stooges. Whatever happens, We have gained the trust.

 

[blueoval79]

Wow...Some Pakistanis still Suffering from Strategic Depth Syndrome......

 

[Awesome]

Wow...Some Pakistanis still Suffering from Strategic Depth Syndrome......

This is what should happen its in Pakistan's interest. I fully believe India will remain a spectator to our clean up job in Afghanistan and it knows it, thats why its opting to do the smart thing and retreating right now, rather than to have to look like running with their tails tucked in afterwards.

2-3 smalltime incidents are not something that would force India to run for security concerns. Its running since its strategic objectives in Afghanistan cannot be met.

 

[blueoval79]

Indian Efforts in Kabul Suspended After February Bombing

The bombing in February of a guest house favored by Indians in Kabul has forced India to temporarily suspend its medical aid and teaching missions in the Afghan capital because most the staff were either killed or wounded, officials said.

Both programs should be up and running again by summer, when many of the staffers who were wounded return and volunteers step forward to replace those slain, said an Indian diplomat in Kabul on Wednesday. Medical missions in four other Afghan cities are still operating, said an Indian official speaking from New Delhi.

India's prominent role in rebuilding Afghanistan—it has donated more than $1.5 billion dollars in the past nine years—has made it one of the key non-Western backers of President Hamid Karzai.

But that, in turn, has nurtured a quiet proxy battle for influence here between India and Pakistan, which has traditionally viewed Afghanistan as lying within its sphere.

U.S. officials and experts believe Pakistan's fears of an Indian-allied government in Kabul are a major reason why Pakistan has allowed the Taliban to operate from its territory and, at times, provided material support to the insurgents. Pakistan denies aiding or sheltering the Taliban, and the ISI has in recent months arrested a number of top Afghan insurgent leaders.

Indians interests in Afghanistan, meanwhile, have faced repeated attack from the Taliban and its Islamist allies.

Indian officials allege that the two most visible attacks in recent years—car bombings of the Indian Embassy in Kabul last year and the year before—were carried out with assistance from elements of Pakistan's spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence. U.S. officials have backed up those allegations, although Pakistan denies any role in either attack.

The Indian official in New Delhi said his government was still investigating the bombing and subsequent raid on the guest house in February. But he said its initial findings matched those of Afghan and U.S. intelligence: that the attacks were a joint operation of the Haqqani network, a major Taliban faction linked to both embassy bombings, and Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistani militant group that usually focuses on targets inside India. The 2008 attack on Mumbai was Lashkar's handiwork, for example.

The February attack killed at least 17 people. Six Indians were among the dead, including a doctor from the army's medical corps and a member the army's education corps, according to India's foreign ministry.

Other army doctors and the only other educator in Kabul were wounded in the attack and flown back to India for treatment, the diplomat said, forcing the temporary closure of the medical and teaching missions.

The diplomat insisted neither mission had any military function. The only reason soldiers were employed is because "civilians are not willing to come because of security situation," the diplomat said.

The medical mission treated about 320,000 Afghans in 2009, according to India's foreign ministry.

Apart from official government missions, Indian executives play key roles in a number of Afghan telecommunications companies and banks.

Indian Efforts in Kabul Suspended - WSJ.com


The scale downs are temporary........and the system will be up and running soon.....may be Pakistan will have to wait for their dream to fulfill.

 

[Awesome]

The scale downs are temporary........and the system will be up and running soon.....may be Pakistan will have to wait for their dream to fulfill.

Or to quote the cricketing slogan "Girti hui dewaron ko, ek dhaka aur do"

 

[blueoval79]

Or to quote the cricketing slogan "Girti hui dewaron ko, ek dhaka aur do"

Diwarain jab tumhar hi chat ko sahara de rahin hoon to un diwaroon ko nahi chuna chahiye...

 

[Areesh]

It is really pleasent to see our Indian brother packing there luggage back to mother land. Good Bye. You were never invited.

 

[ek_indian]

Its running since its strategic objectives in Afghanistan cannot be met.

Retreating is not even started yet. This is just to "scale down" the operations. No one knows what is the current scale there.

As for retreating, it may happens because of two reasons, Either our strategic objective can not be met or it has already been achieved!!

Either case, we should wait and watch till more information comes up.