Kabul:Where RAW’s plans come to Ruin?

So the Indian Embassy in Afghanistan is bulvarized on Monday. 41 people including 4 Indians have died in the attack. Among the dead, the Indian Defence attache in Afghanistan and the alleged brain-child of the anti-Pakistan activities in Afghanistan Brig R Mehta and the press counsellor V Venkat Rao and two other Indian security guards. Fingers are already being pointed at the Pakistani Intelligence Service ISI by the Afghanis and the Indian media.

Frankly speaking, this attack should not have come as a surprise to the Indians especially since they have been pursuing policies that are reckless and damage their own strategic interests in the long run. Afghanistan can and will never become India’s base where they can roam freely threatening Pakistani interests and in the process undermining Western plans to stabilize the country.

The funny thing is how India and the left-overs of the Northern Alliance who formed the current Afghani government are quick to paint of chummy picture of India and Afghanistan being traditional friends. Funny because India was one of the few countries in the region that endorsed the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan, a war that killed hundreds of thousands of Afghani civilians and left a deep scar in both the Afghani geography and social psyche.

Anyways, back to the topic at hand. I think the latest attack on the Indian embassy fit’s a larger picture that has taken a fatal turn for the past two months. As I have noted on my previous post, Pakistan has been warning both the Afghani and the American officials about its reservations of the Indian consulates that India has dotted along the Pakistani border. In addition, the last two months have been the deadliest months for the American troops in Afghanistan. In fact, last month was the first time American casualities in Afghanistan have surpassed causalities in Iraq.

Some are even pointing the blame squarely on the Indian Intelligence Agency RAW.According to the site looking tomorrow:

According to these sources the spate of suicide bombings targeting US led ISAF forces in Afghanistan and targets inside Pakistan, have a distinct Indian signature. The two Indian Consulates at Kandahar and Jalalabad, in particular, located along Pakistani border, as suspected since long, are playing a pivotal role in fanning the fires of violence and turmoil by cultivating Taliban elements through a heavy flow of cash and arms and hoisting perverted ideological motivations to those unfazed by cash and looking to die for a’ cuties’.

Taliban’s ‘India Connection’ was recently revealed when in Kabul, Afghan police apprehended an Indian national from district Zarai of Kandahar province on September 3, 2007. The Indian agent, operating under cover as a Pakistani, was held on charges of assisting and financing Taliban militants in the region. He was shifted to Kabul for detailed interrogation on September 8, 2007. Afghan police investigations established the identity of the suspect as Rohit Vashisht, son of Padam Dev Sharma, belonging to Ranchi district in Bihar province of India. Vashisht had traveled from India to Kabul on passport No. G-3032400 issued on June 1, 2007 and when apprehended, was masquerading as a Pakistani, duly sustained by appropriate dress, complexion and fluency in Urdu. He confessed to, during initial interrogation by Afghan police in Kandahar, of acting as conduit for providing finances and facilitates recruiting elements among Taliban to carryout suicide attacks targeting Pakistan and ISAF forces.

The article also points to recent arrests of Indian operatives who have been caught red-handed

In another such incident recently, an Indian agent operating under cover as member of a medical team in Jalalabad, was caught red handed while working for RAW and cultivating patients for recruitment as suicide bombers. Instead of following up on the case the individual was repatriated quietly to India. Similarly, another Indian agent named Muhammad Tariq was arrested on March 6, 2007 in Jalalabad and remained under custody for five days. Some sensitive documents were recovered from his possession. During interrogation he confessed to working for RAW in Kabul but he was silently and inexplicably released. Vashisht case proved no different. It is reflective of the Indian influence with the levers of power in Afghanistan that despite over-whelming presence of incriminating evidence, intelligence agencies and police authorities released Rohit Vashisht on September 15, 2007 without further ado. To provide an alibi Afghan interrogators declared Rohit Vashisht as mentally deranged and repatriated him back to India on September 16, 2007, through assistance provided by the Indian Embassy in Kabul.

Indians retaliations following the death of their Afghan plan brain-child is likely to involve a tit-for-tat attacks on Pakistani assests especially Sri Lanka and Afghanistan. Already, 6 bomb attacks have went off in Karachi following the embassy bombing. Brig R Mehta is not your every-day potatoe. India will most likely retaliate. The question to be asked is to what degree.