NEW DELHI: Why has India not reacted to reports by a television channel quoting a local Taliban commander saying that Pakistan’s ISI was responsible for the death of Suryanarayan last month.
Does this mean that India does not buy the Taliban version and absolves ISI of blame in the be-heading? Not at all. But the government does not want to comment on the basis of a news report especially as President Karzai has already ordered an investigation to go into Suryanarayan’s abduction and subsequent be heading. “It is premature to comment on the case before the Afghan government has completed its investigations,” a senior government official said.
Nor is the government planning to take up the issue with Islamabad, without solid proof of the ISI’s involvement. India has no illusions about the ISI’s continuing close links with the Taliban. and its efforts to dilute Indian presence in Afghanistan. The turnaround of Delhi’s relations with Kabul from a time when India was almost a pariah in Afghanistan to a position when it is now one of the closest allies of the Hamid Karzai government. The change in India’s position has coincided with the decline of Pakistan’s hold on Afghanistan.
Pakistan’s build up of the Taliban was mainly to gain strategic depth through control of Afghanistan. “Under the Taliban, Pakistan virtually had Afghanistan on a platter, but with their ouster Islamabad completely lost out. Seeing India trying to occupy that space is particularly tough for the ISI,”said an official, who did not wish to be identified. “Instead India’s soft power projection has won over the people of Afghanistan,” the official added. “We are there building roads, hospitals, communication lines, the parliament building and schools. Suryanarayan died working for a company which was out to extend mobile “phone facilities to the people of that country,” the official added.
New Delhi realises that the ISI is out to make life as difficult as possible for Indian’s working out of that country. It wants to strike hard and ensure that the 2,000 or more Indian nationals leave Afghanistan.
“Of course the ISI has a hand in the attack on Indians by the Taliban. Going by past experience, including the hijacking of the IA plane when all those manning Khandhar airport were ISI personnel speaking in Urdu and Punjabi. I know because I was there at that point,” K Parthasarathy, former Indian high commissioner to Pakistan recalls. “These attacks on Indians will continue. But it is important for the government not to get cold feet if a few more Indian lives are sacrificed. The consulates in Herat, Khandahar and Jalalabad must be guarded as these missions are likely to be targeted by the Taliban and ISI,” Parthasarathy added.
