New Kabul attack highlights Indian-Pakistani tension in Afghanistan

Suicide bombings have become part of every-day life in Afghanistan. In mid-January the Taliban killed 12 people in an attack on several government buildings in Kabul. It is clear that suicide bombers are targeting Indian establishments more frequently. In the past year and a half, two terrorist attacks have been carried out on the Indian embassy in the Afghan capital.

The spokesman of the Afghan president, Hamed Helmi says there is no special meaning behind the location of the attacks. "Terrorists attack wherever they can. It has little to do with our relationship to our neighbor. Today they attacked Kabul, not too long ago it was Mumbai, and soon they will find some other place for an attack. They are at war with the whole world."

Tug of war over Afghanistan

What Helmi is reluctant to utter is well known among experts: Islamabad and Delhi are competing for influence in Afghanistan.

Currently India is one of the largest investors in Afghanistan. India fears that the Taliban will return to power. Some people believe that they still receive support from parts of the Pakistani government and military. And Islamabad vehemently criticizes India's growing influence in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan expert Conrad Schetter sees a link between the latest bombing and the official talks that India and Pakistan held in New Delhi on Thursday, just one day before. "Afghanistan has been part of the India-Pakistan conflict for a long time. We have a situation, in which Pakistan accuses India of promoting the separatist Baloch movement through Afghanistan. On the other hand, Pakistan is trying to secure strategic depth in Afghanistan, especially with regard to the Kashmir conflict. Now that the talks have taken place between India and Pakistan, there are certain forces, especially in Pakistan, who are showing their opposition against the talks and are therefore trying to extend the combat zone to Afghanistan."

Pakistan between a rock and a hard place

Schetter knows that Pakistan, which has fought several wars against India, is extremely afraid of losing Kabul to Delhi. "For the past 50 years Pakistan has been worried about getting crushed between the two countries. On the one hand there is the conflict over Kashmir, because it still is not clear whether Kashmir belongs to India or Pakistan, and on the other hand, there is the Pashtun problem on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, which is also disputed. So Pakistan is worried that both conflicts could escalate and it would be caught between its two enemies."

The question is whether it will ever be possible for the US and NATO to secure peace in Afghanistan under these circumstances. "I believe that Obama made the right move a year ago," says Schetter, "when he recognized that Afghanistan and Pakistan are basically one 'AfPak' conflict. In my opinion it is vital to take these underlying issues of Pashtunistan and Kashmir seriously and try to find solutions that everyone can accept."

But Schetter adds that the international community is still far from thinking along these lines and will need some time to come up with comprehensive strategies to tackle the conflicts in South Asia.

Author: Ratbil Shamel / sb
Editor: Thomas Baerthlein