ISI Instructs Terrorists To Destroy Indian Assets In Afghanistan – Free PDF Download

What has happened?

• Pakistani intelligence agency ISI has directed its fighters and Taliban to target buildings and infrastructure built by India, over the last 20 years, in war-torn Afghanistan.

Indian assets are 1^st target

• “A large number of Pakistani fighters have joined the fight inside Afghanistan against the government there and supporting the Taliban.
• They have entered the arena with instructions to target Indian assets and buildings,” government sources monitoring the ground situation there have told.
• The instructions are clear that the first target should be Indian assets in areas that come under the Taliban’s control, sources said.
• According to estimates, more than 10,000 Pakistani fighters have entered Afghanistan through the porous borders,
• While several were stationed there for many years — actively fighting against the US and allied forces.
• The Pakistan-backed Islamic terrorist groups including the Haqqani network have been highly active for years against India there.

Steps being taken by India?

• The Indian workers involved in civil works have also been asked to move out.
• Indian public sector company WAPCOS had some officials there for dam projects.
• India had recently also announced works worth around USD 350 million including the Shahtoot dam for providing drinking water to the city of Kabul.
• Other countries are closely monitoring the situation at the Kabul airport — which is soon likely to be handed over to the Turks by the Americans.

Why Afghanistan is important for India?

• As the Taliban push ahead, India faces a situation in which it may have no role to play in that country, and in the worst case scenario, not even a diplomatic presence.
• That would be a reversal of nearly 20 years of rebuilding a relationship that goes back centuries.
• Afghanistan is vital to India’s strategic interests in the region.
• It is also perhaps the only SAARC nation whose people have much affection for India.
• After a break between 1996 and 2001, when India joined the world in shunning the previous Taliban regime (only Pakistan, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia kept ties),
• One way New Delhi re-established ties with the country in the two decades after the 9/11 attacks was to pour in development assistance, under the protective umbrella of the US presence.
• India built vital roads, dams, electricity transmission lines and substations, schools and hospitals, etc.
• India’s development assistance is now estimated to be worth well over $3 billion.
• And unlike in other countries where India’s infrastructure projects have barely got off the ground or are mired in the host nation’s politics, it has delivered in Afghanistan.

India’s assets in Afghanistan?

• Speaking at the Afghanistan Conference in Geneva in November 2020,
• External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said “no part of Afghanistan today is untouched by the 400-plus projects that India has undertaken in all 34 of Afghanistan’s provinces”.
• The fate of these projects is now up in the air.

• SALMA DAM- Afghan-India Friendship Dam
• ZARANJ-DELARAM HIGHWAY
• PARLIAMENT
• STOR PALACE

• POWER INFRA
• HEALTH INFRA
• TRANSPORTATION
• OTHER PROJECTS:Desks and benches for schools, Solar panels, Sulabh toilet blocks
• NGOING PROJECTS:Shatoot Dam in Kabul district
• The 2011 India-Afghanistan Strategic Partnership Agreement recommitted Indian assistance to help rebuild Afghanistan’s infrastructure and institutions;
• Education and technical assistance for capacity-building in many areas; encourage investment in Afghanistan; and provide duty-free access to the Indian market.
• Bilateral trade is now worth $1 billion.

conclusion

• Meanwhile, whether India would be able to maintain its presence in Afghanistan with the return of the Taliban is still not clear.
• There has been no indication or assurance received from the new radical Islamic establishment in this regard.
• India is left only with two of its institutions in Afghanistan — the consulate in Mazar-e-Sharif and the embassy in Kabul.
• The Kandahar consulate saw the return of Indian citizens and security personnel recently while the ones in Jalalabad and Herat were shut earlier.

Q) SAARC was founded by 7 states in 1985. Which is the 8^th member to join the grouping in 2005?

1. Sri Lanka
2. Maldives
3. Bhutan
4. Afghanistan

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