By James Lamont in New Delhi and Matthew Green in Islamabad
India has offered to train Afghan police to help them prevent future terrorist attacks in a move likely to be seen as highly provocative by long-time rival Pakistan.
Over recent weeks, Islamabad has rebuffed accusations from senior US and Afghan officials that its allies in Afghanistan are responsible for a spate of attacks. A move by New Delhi, which has long accused Pakistan of backing terror groups operating in India, to train Afghan police for the first time would risk raising the temperature further in one of the world?s most volatile regions.
The Indian government hopes to reach agreement with Hamid Karzai, Afghan president, on the new security training programme during his two-day visit to the Indian capital which begins on Tuesday, according to a person familiar with the offer. If Mr Karzai accepts, specialist training of high-ranking Afghan police officers in India could begin before the end of the year, according to people close to the talks.
An Indian foreign ministry spokesman said that Mr Karzai?s visit to New Delhi, his second this year, was also ?an opportunity for both countries to consolidate their strategic partnership and discuss bilateral, regional and global issues?.
Pakistan?s military has long feared that India would seek to foster closer ties with Afghanistan. For decades, Islamabad has covertly supported Afghan militant groups in an effort to prevent the emergence of a pro-Indian government in Kabul.
Afghan officials maintain that the Pakistan army?s Inter-Service Intelligence agency has stepped up support for Afghan Taliban factions in recent years – claims Pakistan denies. Mr Karzai?s government recently accused the ISI of playing a role in last month?s assassination of Burhanuddin Rabbani, Afghanistan?s former president, and investigators have said his assassin was a Pakistani national. Another attack on the US embassy in Kabul was blamed on the Haqqani militant network, which the Pentagon considers to be an arm of Pakistan?s intelligence services.
According to C. Raja Mohan, a senior fellow at the Delhi-based Centre for Policy Studies, a scramble for influence in Afghanistan by its nuclear-armed neighbours is inevitable in the countdown to the planned US troop withdrawal in 2014.
?An American retreat is going to be far more difficult to handle [than deployment],? he said. ?The kind of threats presented [to India] by Afghanistan and Pakistan over the next two decades is going to be very different.?
Mr Karzai renewed his criticism of Pakistan in a speech on Monday, condemning what he called its ?double game? in backing Afghan militancy. But the Afghan president re-iterated that he believed the only effective route to negotiating an end to the insurgency would be through talks with Pakistan, which he believes controls Taliban leaders based on its territory.
Mr Karzai said he would hold a traditional gathering, or ?Loya jirga,? to discuss the best way to revive his reconciliation drive following the death of Mr Rabbani, who was leading the peace initiative.
Afghan police personnel have borne the brunt of terror attacks since the Taliban regime was toppled in 2001. At estimated 1,800 police officers have died over the past 16 months alone.
India has long maintained that its support for Afghanistan is civilian in nature and driven by what its officials call ?civilisational links?. Its $1.5bn Afghan aid programme concentrates on small-scale development projects. It also trains large numbers of the country?s bureaucrats and offers medical treatment to Afghans. Many officials in Mr Karzai?s own office have studied in India.
India is also hopeful of deepening its economic engagement with Afghanistan in coming weeks. A consortium of Indian companies, led by the Steel Authority of India, is bidding for an iron ore mining concession in central Afghanistan.
? The Financial Times Limited 2011