WASHINGTON: Afghanistan has boldly stepped up where even India has been discreet in treading, bluntly accusing the Pakistani intelligence agency ISI of masterminding the latest bombing of the Indian Embassy in Kabul which killed 17 people.
"Yes, we do," Afghan Ambassador to the US Said Jawad told the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in an interview here when asked if he was pointing the figure at Pakistan for the suicide bombing that took place on Thursday.
"We are pointing the finger at the Pakistan intelligence agency, based on the evidence on the ground and similar attack taking place in Afghanistan," Jawad said. He did not elaborate on the evidence.
Jawad was following up similar charges from Afghan officials in Kabul, who were quick to identify Pakistani intelligence as the mastermind even though India’s foreign secretary Nirupama Rao was initially circumspect in suggesting that New Delhi would let the investigations take its course before reaching any conclusion.
The previous attack referred to by Jawad and other Afghan officials was the bombing of the Indian Embassy in July 2008, which US officials disclosed was conducted by the ISI-backed Haqqani network. That network was heard being described by Pakistan’s army chief Pervez Ashfaq Kiyani as Islamabad’s “strategic asset” in intelligence intercepts, result in the suspicion in Washington and New Delhi that Pakistani’s military-intelligence apparatus masterminded the attack on the embassy. That attack killed 58 people, including a popular young Indian diplomat and a senior military attaché.
On Saturday though, India’s Nirupama Rao also stepped up to the plate, saying Thursday’s embassy attack was the handiwork of the enemies of India-Afghan friendship and their "patrons across the border," but not directly naming Pakistan.
"The attack was clearly the handiwork of those who are desperate to undermine Indo-Afghan friendship and do not believe in a strong, democratic and pluralistic Afghanistan," Rao, who has rushed to Kabul for assessment, said, while reiterating India’s “unwavering commitment” to Afghanistan.
Pakistan has been pressing unsubtly with Washington that it resents Indian presence in Afghanistan, where New Delhi has invested more than $ 1.5 billion to build hospitals, school and other civil infrastructure, while expanding its soft power influence.
Pakistan, in contrast, is now widely reviled in Afghanistan and is regarded as the source of all its troubles, beginning with the training and infiltration of the Taliban in the early 1990s to take over Kabul after the eviction of the Soviet Union at the end of the Cold War.
Getting Islamabad to unhitch its obsession with Afghanistan with the idea of using it as “strategic depth” against India, whose ties with Kabul pre-date Pakistan’s 1947 creation, is part of the Obama administration’s long-term solution for the region.
But Pakistan has been insisting on its right to challenge Indian presence in Afghanistan because of the perceived threat it poses. Earlier this week, the Pakistani military high command issued a thinly-disguised rebuff to US efforts, saying "Pakistan is a sovereign state and has all the rights to analyse and respond to the threat in accordance with her own national interests.” The embassy bombing took place around the same time.
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