Merwah Hamid Qureshi
Cold start doctrine, unleashing havoc in Kashmir, launching spy missions in Pakistan via Pak-Iran border, attacking Pakistan on the pretext of terrorism and stalling the Afghan peace process by supporting terrorism, are the moves played by India on the South Asian chess board with aim to gain the regional supremacy by checkmating Pakistan. The saffron color is trying to engulf the entire region, be it with war, anti-Pakistan conspiracies, and militancy or illegal annexations. Indian hands can be easily seen in most of the regional bloody games. Indian involvement in Afghan problem for the quest of regional control is not under the cloak anymore. Since decades, India’s paranoia of Pakistan dominating the region has made India to intervene in every issue and to gain as much as possible.
For years India seems to have been supporting the militant factions in Afghanistan. From Afghan government overthrow to the terrorist attack on minorities’ worship places and from infiltrating militant networks to using them against Afghan interests, India seems to be an active participant in the Afghan terrorism. The recent attack on the prison in Jalalabad and the escape of up to 1000 inmates belonging to ISIS (K) -most of them were later recaptured- is another episode in the Indo-Afghan saga of militancy. ISIS Khorasan claimed the responsibility of the attack. The Jalalabad prison attack which took place on 2ndAugust 2020, during the three day ceasefire between the Afghan government and Taliban, casted a negative impact on the Afghan peace process. It appears that the militant involved in jail attack had 3 Indians among them as well.
Indian sponsored and supported chaos, militancy, terrorism and general mayhem will affect the morale of Afghan defense forces and will weaken the Afghan government’s response towards such incidents. The uncertainty and increasing militancy will create a trust deficit between the Taliban’s and the US, which will ultimately stall the Afghan peace process.
Indian involvement in Afghanistan is not a hidden thing. Previously, the NDS spokesperson LutfullahMashaal clearly stated, “India’s intel spoiling Afghan peace process, India shouldn’t use Kabul soil for Pak-India disputes.” Not only this but Pakistan’s Foreign Office, in its official statement in June 2020 stated that the United Nations Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team (MT) had independently examined that, “Foreign terrorist fighters from India are travelling to Afghanistan to join the ISIL-Khorasan (ISIL-K)”. The Indian Ministry of External Affairs clearly falsified the statement upon which the Pakistan’s Foreign Office stated, “The MEA’s distortion and falsification of the contents of the UN report and its concocted allegations reveal that India’s agenda is to create complications for the Afghan peace process. Pakistan has warned the world about the role of spoilers within and outside Afghanistan.”
It appears that India has some higher stakes in Afghanistan. Therefore, Indian involvement in Afghanistan has become a known fact. However, India openly denies any involvement in Afghanistan by sticking to the question what is in it for India to gain. The answer to this question lies in the fact that Indian sponsored and supported chaos, militancy, terrorism and general mayhem will affect the morale of Afghan defense forces and will weaken the Afghan government’s response towards such incidents. The uncertainty and increasing militancy will create a trust deficit between the Taliban’s and the US, which will ultimately stall the Afghan peace process.
Once the peace process is stalled and all the hopes are lost, the militant factions will start thriving more and will become stronger with every passing day. As India seems to have links with those factions, so more these factions grow stronger more the Indian influence in Afghanistan increases. She will get more ground and the logistic support to launch anti-Pakistan campaign and to strategically challenge the sovereignty of Pakistan by launching her spy missions via Pak-Afghan border. This whole situation is not just carved out of blue or is not a mere speculation but actually it’s the Indian way of working. Seeing India’s past trajectory and the way India made her spy KhulbhushanYadhav to run a spy network via Pak-Iran border, are sufficient enough to envisage India’s future strategy. Encircling Pakistan and then eventually engulfing her has always been the actual goal of Hindutva factions governing India. However, India seems to have forgotten the fact that after the illegal annexation of IOK and mass genocide in IOK, world has come to know the real Nazi face of India.