India to send more troops to Kabul, Kathmandu

New Delhi: India today decided to rush 40 ITBP commandos to strife-torn Afghanistan for protection of its people and assets while its Embassy in Nepal will be fortified following a threat of a Lashkar-e-Taiba(LeT) attack.

The decisions to have more commando presence were taken following a review of the security for Indian assets by the Government in the wake of the audacious attack in Kabul last month on places frequented by Indians and the LeT threat to the mission in Kathmandu, an official said.


The government is also contemplating to review security in the Indian Embassy in Colombo.

"Though there is no specific threat to Colombo mission which is well guarded, we will review security there too," an official said. The mission is guarded by BSF personnel.

The Indo-Tibetan Border Police(ITBP) commandos would leave for Kabul on Saturday, the official said.

The official said while some would be deployed at Indian missions, a few others would be stationed in guest houses frequently used by Indians involved in development work.

A team of central security agencies would also leave for Afghanistan shortly to review the security situation.

Based on the report filed by the team, sources said the government would decide whether to scale up the deployment of Indian security personnel.

National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon also visited Kabul last week to review the situation.

An official said the decision to fortify the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu was taken following Intelligence inputs that Pakistan-based LeT may try to target it and diplomats.

"We have reviewed the security after the Intelligence inputs and have decided to fortify the Embassy in Kathmandu which include deployment of more commandos and putting in place more security measures," the official said. The Embassy is guarded by commandos of Central Industrial Security Force.

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No enough. We should have started by sending in a few companies and then based on security assessment readied a brigade level force. No indian working there should be unsafe. India should expand its work in Astan.

Maintaining an armed force abroad is a costly undertaking.

We all remember the cost of sending our troops to Sri-Lanka alone.

We have more need of money else where then getting embroiled in conflicts away from India.

Again, we are not going there to fight anyone but to protect our citizens. Dont get confused between the two. We have invested billions there and a lot of time as well. It cannot be let to go waste. We need forced to protect our men and our assets there. We are not going there for a shooting contest.

If we go to protect we need to be prepared to fight.

And that costs money and lives.

A limited but protective presence on a short term or medium term basis is acceptable but a protracted stay is political suicide.

And if that happens the Pak will scream in the US ear.

And US and India will have unnecessary friction in their ties.

Indian interests are mostly in the west of that country. Indian troops are not going to stare in the eyes of the Pakistani soldiers. They can complain as much as they want to the US, if India is committed to Astan, then it has to do everything to protect its interests and its men. If not say we dont have the ball and we are leaving. Our billions of dollars be damned.

I second, it will all waste if we do not take advantage of our investment. I think Farkhor Air Base in Tajikistan would hold key as it will allow us to support our troops in Afghanistan without taking help from Pakistan.

One more reason why we should send more troops.

Subtlety has its own purpose. sometime we cant be the ones holding the guns.

Lets face it military presence often means the disdain of the local populace.

Currently the Afghan people favor Indian Initiatives.

what we need is to help the Afghans secure themselves.

Training their forces is an important contribution that we make, India troops were also deployed to provide security for the construction of the highways by Indian Firms after completion they were brought back.

Let the ISF handle security along with the Afghan government.

But india has been doing all the good work. The locals are with us. Indian troops are not going there if at all to get into a tiff with the locals. We are not in for a COIN which will be a cause of friction between the two countries and its people. We will go there with a brief to protect our people and assets. The question of getting the displeasure of the Afghans don't come into the picture at all. In fact they will welcome more indians with open arms.

The Japs are providing more assistance economically then us. they don't feel a need to go there.

I know you think more boots on the ground is better, but we are just making ourselves a larger target, for a hidden enemy.

You cant possibly believe that a deeply conservative and tribal society of Afghanistan is going to welcome more foreign soldiers on to their soil.

In the worst case anti-India groups operating in Kashmir may decide to expand their fight to attack Indians in Afghanistan.

Public opinion in India has always been the same throughout the decade.

US , India and Israeli Know first hand the constant fight against terrorism. And know the only way to engage with terrorism groups.

But going to Afghanistan Now with active combat troops will cause more harm then good.

We do well training the Afghans to defend themselves

The japs may be doing that but they don't have the isi on its neck. I have to repeat again, india is not going there with the purpose of picking a fight, but stop others from attacking us and retaliate if required.

Indian public opinion will be all for it if more of our men come back in body bags.

We will be in a fight weather we like it or not.

Face it we are the third most hated country after the US and Israel for the kind of people we are fighting.

We put people there they will come to them looking for a fight.

But the people of Afghanistan at large don't hate india. The Taliban does. They are killing our men. We cannot stay as they say in hindi haath pe haath dhare bethe rahe.

Tell me something, do you want india to pull out of india completely?

Oh Hell NO .

I want the Taliban dead and in the ground. and a strong and stable Afghanistan holding Pakistan to account.

I simply have issues with your plan on how to achieve that.

You want to send troops then i say we go all they way. and send a few hundred thousand troops, and air and Armour assets.

or stick with our no military mission.

If we haggle in between we will caught open and get kicked in the nuts. Its as simple as that.

If we go the whole distance from the outset, logistics will come into play. But before that, why will we require all that when the intention is to not start a fight with Taliban. The americans are doing that whether or not they are finding any success. We don't have to dirty our hands fighting them. For me sending a couple of divisions would only be with the idea of staring at pakistan on its western border and giving them sleepless nights.