By Jeremy Kahn
What’s more dangerous than being an American in Afghanistan? Being an Indian in Afghanistan. On Oct. 8, a car bomb exploded outside the Indian Embassy in Kabul, killing 17 people and wounding 76. The attack came 15 months after another bomb damaged the embassy and killed 58, including the Indian defense attaché. Elsewhere in the country, Indian workers have been victims of suicide attacks and kidnappings.
Although rarely discussed in the West, India is a key player in the Afghan conflict. New Delhi has long sought to keep friendly governments in Kabul as a bulwark against archrival Pakistan. India pledged more than $1.2 billion in reconstruction aid to Afghanistan, making it the country’s fifth-largest donor and the biggest within the region. There are at least 4,000 Indian workers and security personnel employed on reconstruction projects in the country. India also opened an air base in Tajikistan, its first on foreign soil, to supply its Afghan operations.
All of which makes Pakistan very nervous. Pakistan has accused India and Hamid Karzai’s government of covertly supporting militants who are challenging Islamabad’s authority over Baluchistan, an oil- and gas-rich province in southwest Pakistan. Some believe Islamabad’s military and intelligence services have allowed the Taliban safe haven in Pakistan largely because they view the Afghan insurgents as a proxy force against India. Indian and Western intelligence services found strong evidence that Pakistan’s premier spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelli-gence, helped plan the July 2008 Indian Embassy bombing in Kabul. And, while India is still investigating the latest attack on its embassy, Afghan ambassador to the U.S. Said Jawad wasted no time in pointing the finger at Is-lamabad again.
The new Great Game being played out between India and Pakistan in Afghanistan has complicated matters for the U.S. and its NATO allies. “While Indian activities largely benefit the Afghan people,” Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, wrote in his recent report to President Obama, “increasing Indian influence in Afghanistan is likely to exacerbate regional tensions and encourage Pakistani countermeasures in Afghanistan or India.” Evidently, the road to peace in Afghanistan runs not just through Kabul and Islamabad, but Delhi as well.
