Pakistan’s powerful spy agency, the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), has never been able to reconcile itself to its long-drawn plans backfiring in Afghanistan
NEW DELHI: Pakistan’s powerful spy agency, the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), has never been able to reconcile itself to its long-drawn plans backfiring in Afghanistan, and India’s growing presence in that country post 9/11 is something hardline elements within the military-intelligence have not been able to swallow.
It has therefore not come as much of a surprise to India that the ISI had a hand in the suicide attack on the Indian mission in Kabul last month. US intelligence sources claim that intercepts have proved that the charges, first levelled by Afghanistan, and backed by India, can be corroborated.
Ever since the Taliban was ousted from Kabul, Pakistan’s, more specifically the ISI’s, hold on Afghanistan has diminished. The ISI has invested much on the Taliban, and the years when they were in control in Kabul, was the shining period of Pakistan’s Afghan policy, as it gained strategic depth through its influence in Afghanistan.
But since the Taliban was bundled out, India has gained lost ground. This is why an ISI hand in the attack cannot be ruled out, Indian officials believe.
Islamabad is uneasy over India’s growing presence in Afghanistan. While during the Taliban regime, India had to close its mission in Kabul, today it has four consulates in that country, besides the embassy in Kabul. These are in Herat, Jalalabad, Kandahar and Mazar-e-Sharif. Islamabad has often in the past charged these consulates of stirring trouble in Pakistan.
India and Afghanistan are stirring trouble in Fata and Balochistan, Rehman Malik, adviser to the prime minister on interior affairs, recently told reporters in Washington, where he had gone with prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani. “India, wants to destabilise Fata. What India and (Afghan President) Karzai are doing must stop,’’ Malik was quoted by agencies as saying. Pakistan is under tremendous pressure from the US, so was Malik possibly trying to defend Pakistan’s position?
India realises that the newly elected democratic government in Pakistan is not in total control. The power struggle between the army and the political bosses has not yet played itself out. Chances are that the ISI may be doing all this without orders from the elected government. Whether it is Asif Zardari of the Pakistan Peoples Party or Nawaz Sharif of the Pakistan Muslim League, the fact remains that both parties are keen to repair relations with India. Both parties are also keen to improve trade and economic cooperation.
When foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee visited Islamabad in May, he came back with the feeling that there was goodwill for India and a desire to improve ties existed across the political spectrum in Pakistan.
But with Pakistan’s government itself not fully in control of the situation, the hardliners within the military and ISI establishment are doing their best to put a spanner on the peace process. An unstable Pakistan is dangerous for both India and Afghanistan.
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