Col. Anil Bhat (Retd.) DefenceIndia Special

On 28 April 2006, a 41-year old Indian national, Shri K. Suryanarayan, working for a Bahrain-based engineering and IT company, Al Moayed, was kidnapped, along with his Afghan driver, while travelling towards Qalat, capital of Zabul province. The kidnapping which took place around 1800 hours, has been claimed by the Taliban in a call made to local media. Al Moayed is currently undertaking a project for Roshan Telecom, an Afghan mobile telephone service provider. According to company sources Shri Suryanarayan had gone to the site of the company's work about 60 kms from Ghazni around 1330 hours.

The Indian Embassy in Kabul immediately contacted Afghan security authorities, the international security force deployed in the area and the Afghan mobile company, Roshan Telecom, to secure the release of the Indian national and to ensure the safety of the other Indians working in the company. Earlier this afternoon, the Cabinet Secretary took a meeting of senior officials to review the situation. The Indian Embassy in Kabul has been instructed to keep in close and constant touch with the local authorities and the concerned companies. It has also been instructed to reiterate security instructions to all Indians working in Afghanistan and to request the companies employing them to reinforce their security.

The family of Shri Suryanarayan has been informed of the incident and reassured of the efforts being made by the Government to secure his release. So far there has been no communication or contact by the Taliban other than the claim that they have the Indian national in their custody. The Government of India condemns the incident and the attempts by the Taliban and other hostile elements to intimidate
Indian and other international and Afghan workers engaged in the reconstruction of Afghanistan and improving the lives of its people.

This is the fifth incident involving Indians assisting the reconstruction of Afghanistan in some form or the other and the fourth involving danger to or loss of life there.

India, a long-time supporter of the Northern Alliance, and the first country to re- eatablish its embassy in Kabul (closed on 26 September 1996 since the Taliban took charge of it), after the American coalition forces moved into Afghanistan, has been providing it with material and logistical support in the form of running a hospital at Farkhor near the Afghan-Tajik border, where Ahmed Shah Masood was first brought after being grievously injured in the suicide attack on him; the Indira Gandhi Hospital for Women and Children in Kabul; the hundreds of Jaipur feet provided to the victims of landmine blasts; the training of Afghan doctors and nurses, diplomats, and teachers; the provision of scholarships to deserving Afghan students by the Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR); the nearly 300 buses
gifted; the provision of one million tonnes of wheat; the extension of the $ 100 million line-of-credit, of which $ 31.5 million has been utilized in fiscal year 2002-2003; the pledging of $ 70 million for improvement of the 200-km road from Zaranj to Delaram, announced during the visit of President Hamid Karzai to New Delhi between 5-8 March, 2003; the ongoing work to prepare an Indian satellite to broadcast Afghan State television programmes, to be completed by May 2004; India's participation in the
proposed trans-Afghan road and rail link between Termez in Uzbekistan and Chahbahar in Iran, are ample proof of the investments India is making to ensure a more stable Afghanistan, at peace with itself and its neighbours. In addition to the major infrastructural developmental projects, during a conference held in 2005 at Berlin, two more were decided upon. One is the revival of the Salma Dam with a further
assistance of $ 70 million and the other is the Pule Khambri electricity project at a cost of $ 70 to 80 million.

India opened consulates in Herat and Mazhar-e-Sharif in August 2002 and in Kandahar and Jalalabad in December 2002 to co-ordinate its efforts better. General Parvez Musharraf contended that India's
decision to open these consulates had "nothing to do with the promotion of economic ties", but intended to "harm Pakistan." The Afghan Foreign Minister, Abdullah Abdullah, clarified that the activities of the Indian consulates were "in the limits of their duty as consulates in accordance with international norms and principles.".

Despite its peace process with India since November,2003, the Pakistani establishment still nourishes suspicions of 'evil intent' on India's part. It accused India's Research and Analysis Wing of circulating false currency, and running training camps for Afghans to carry out destructive activities, in the tribal areas bordering Pakistan, which ironically is exactly what Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) has been doing all over India. Rubbishing these allegations, India maintains that, as two sovereign countries, India and Afghanistan have full rights to determine the nature and content of their bilateral relationship.

There is however, little doubt about elements inimical to India being active in Afghanistan. The first incident was of two Indian workers, P. Murali and G. Vardharai, who were kidnapped on 9 December 2003 and released by their captors, believed to be either Taliban or local armed gangs, on 24 December. The abductors had earlier demanded release of some 50 prisoners held by the authorities in the Southern Afghan province of Zabul in exchange for the two. The two Indians, a soil sampler and a foreman, were employed on the US-funded $270-million Kandahar-Kabul road project.

The second incident was of an Indian telecommunications engineer, Sanjiv, working for the Afghan Wireless Company, who was shot dead on 8 November 2003,. The kidnappings and killing illustrate the dangers to Indians working for the reconstruction of Afghanistan.

The third incident began as an abduction of Maniyappan Raman Kutty of the Indian Border Roads Organization (BRO), working on the Zaranj-Delaram road project in Afghanistan, along with three Afghan
nationals, on 19 November 2005. Government of India made every effort possible to seek his safe release in cooperation with Afghan authorities and also worked with its own network of contacts in
Afghanistan to this end. Unfortunately, neither of these efforts worked. The Taliban, which claimed responsibility for the abduction, brutally killed him and dumped his decapacitated body.

The latest incident is the case of the loss of a consignment of explosives meant for use by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) for its Project in Afghanistan, while it was being shipped from Mumbai between 22nd and 23rd December 2005. Six containers containing explosive cargo for the BRO disappeared from the deck of the ship MV EUGENIA. The ship was brought into Mumbai Anchorage on 23rd December, 2005. Of the six containers, four were extricated and their contents shifted to the premises of the manufacturer M/s Premier Explosives for destruction. Two containers could not be traced and the Indian Navy is of the opinion that they may have merged with the wrecks of two ships, lying in the same area or drifted away. Sabotage has not been ruled out.

Shortly after US coalition forces moved into Afghanistan, at least two groups of Al Qaeda-one of a few seniors and the other of about 150 cadres, had made their way from Afghanistan to Bangladesh by the sea route. There are enough of Al Qaeda and Taliban, who, supported by the ISI, are active not only in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, particularly in Jammu and Kashmir and the North-Eastern region but also on the high seas, which became evident by the attacks on USS Cole and a French tanker. (900 words of text)