The attack is thus part of the competition between India and Pakistan in Afghanistan. India’s interests in continuing to maintain a relationship with elements of the Northern Alliance are an aggravating factor in Pakistan and the Taliban’s perspectives. Its aid projects in Afghanistan are widely perceived by the public in favourable terms. India is the fifth-largest donor to the country. Its projects cover people-friendly areas like road construction, power transmission, education and health. More importantly,

India looks at Afghanistan as a conduit to the Central Asian states. Its over 200 km road project will link Afghanistan to sea ports in Iran. These are developments with long-term strategic consequences for Pakistan’s Afghan policy.

India is faced with the growing control of the Taliban in Afghanistan. That Kabul, which is ringed by armed police with an outer ring of foreign forces, can be penetrated by the Taliban is indicative of the precarious security environment which prevails. After the March 2009 attack against a US military base, a DVD doing the rounds showed the powerful blast and the damage it caused. More importantly, the DVD showed the

pro-Taliban warlord, Jalaluddin Haqqani, taunting the foreign forces by saying, “Now you see I am still alive.” The suicide bomber in the attack was reportedly a German-born Turkish citizen trained in Pakistan. The daring jail break and other incidents in Kabul are seemingly proof of the Taliban’s boast of taking over Kabul by the spring of 2010.Indian interests in Afghanistan will continue to be challenged. The Taliban and al-Qaeda will be the flag- bearers of this challenge which will, from now, direct attacks against Indian interests locally and ever more powerfully. Attacks on Indian workers and officials will increase. The usual precautions of better security procedures and intelligence coordination with local authorities, and the advice to be resolute in retaining presence in Afghanistan, will only marginally secure the Indian nationals — 3000 of them currently. A suicide bomber can only be prevented but not stopped, once he or she is able to penetrate the security cordons. Every new security device will inevitably produce a new variant of terrorist attack. That need not distract Indian policy planners from their clear-eyed understanding of the national interests involved.

... contd.