While there were no reports of injuries to Indians in Monday’s Taliban attack on the Afghanistan Parliament, the security establishment here feels the heat this summer will certainly turn upon those helping the war-torn nation in its effort to rebuild itself.
Though the obvious target of Taliban is the NATO forces, senior officials within the security establishment told The Pioneer that it is a constant struggle for India to maintain its foothold in the violence-torn nation facing the Taliban’s `Spring Offensive’.
India has made an investment of $2.4 billion in Afghanistan, mainly in infrastructure sector. There has been Indian involvement in power, agriculture and education too.
The new Parliament building for Afghanistan in Kabul is also being constructed by India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will soon inaugurate it. It is learnt that major work in the building is almost done.
Given the fact that Indian establishments and officials posted in Kabul and Herat have been regularly the target of Fidayeen attacks and as the Taliban attacks get more virulent, Indians have been asked to stay on guard and keep their installations safe.
Meanwhile, Indian workers are speeding up work on Salma Dam, New Afghan Parliament building, Doshi Charikar power project and restoration of store place.
The Taliban’s Spring Offensive began on April 24 this year. It said it was against “foreign occupiers, especially their permanent military bases, officials of the stooge regime, their military constellations, especially their Intelligence, Interior Ministry and Defence Ministry officials”.
The planned offensive will actually be a reality check for President Ashraf Ghani who has been trying to win Pakistan’s confidence to tame the Taliban. Ghani had recently decided to have a pact between Pakistan’s ISI and Afghanistan’s National Defence Service for intelligence sharing and interrogation of suspects by ISI, which apparently has not gone down well with his own intelligence set up. India is watching the developments even as it struggles to keep its citizens safe in the country.
According to estimates by the Afghan security forces, in March 2015 some 6,500 foreign terrorist fighters were active in Afghanistan. Out of these, a majority are associated with the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan, while 300 are with the Tehrik-e Nefaz-e Shariat-e Muhammadi and about 160 with lashkar-e-Tayyeba.