Indian Role in Afghanistan

[bengalraider]

An Afghan man pulls a cart as his young brother helps during a rainy day in Kabul on April 1, 2009.

SHAH MARAI/AFP/Getty Images

U.S. Marines fire 120mm mortars on Taliban positions on April 3, 2009 in Now Zad in Helmand province, Afghanistan.

John Moore/Getty Images

 

[bengalraider]

Afghan policemen at a police station in Naray, in Afghanistan's eastern Kunar province on April 13, 2009.

LIU JIN/AFP/Getty Images

An Afghan boy watches U.S. soldiers on patrol in Naray, in the eastern Kunar province on April 13, 2009.

LIU JIN/AFP/Getty Images

 

[bengalraider]

Angry Shiite Muslims shout in defence of the new Shiite Personal Status Law in Kabul on April 15, 2009.

SHAH MARAI/AFP/Getty Images

An Afghan man rides his bicycle loaded with plastic watering cans in front of the war-damaged Darlaman Palace in the west of Kabul on May 5, 2009.

SHAH MARAI/AFP/Getty Images

 

[bengalraider]

Newly-graduated Afghan National Army soldiers sit during a graduation ceremony of about 1,100 officers and soldiers at the Afghan National Army training center in Kabul on May 7, 2009.

MASSOUD HOSSAINI/AFP/Getty Images

Winner of the Mr. Afghanistan contest, Shukrullah from the Helmand province, flexes his muscles for the judges during the competition in Kabul on June 2, 2009. Under the Taliban regime, the Mr. Afghanistan contest was banned as sportsmen were forbidden to appear partially naked in public.

SHAH MARAI/AFP/Getty Images

 

[bengalraider]

An Afghan vendor arranges mangoes for his customers in Kabul on June 4, 2009.

SHAH MARAI/AFP/Getty Images

A worker pressure washes parts on a U.S. CH-47 Chinook helicopter on June 25, 2009 in Kandahar, Afghanistan. The helicopter is part of the 3rd Battalion of the 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade which is providing air support for troops fighting Taliban fighters in southern Afghanistan.

Joe Raedle/Getty Images

 

[bengalraider]

Afghan potter Khiyal Mohammad, works at his craft in the Shomali plains, north of Kabul on June 30, 2009.

SHAH MARAI/AFP/Getty Images

U.S. Marines from 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, RCT 2nd Battalion 8th Marines Echo Co. try to find a target that was reported to be crossing a field on July 4, 2009 in Mian Poshteh, Afghanistan.

Joe Raedle/Getty Images

 

[bengalraider]

U.S. Marines from 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, RCT 2nd Battalion 8th Marines Echo Co. meet with Afghan villagers who returned to the area in Mian Poshteh, Afghanistan after the Marines drove Taliban fighters from the center of the village on July 5, 2009.

Joe Raedle/Getty Images

An elderly Afghan man walks in the old city of Kabul on July 6, 2009.

SHAH MARAI/AFP/Getty Images

 

[bengalraider]

A U.S. Marine wears a belt of ammunition around his neck on July 6, 2009 in Mian Poshteh, Afghanistan.

Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Afghan farmers harvest their wheat crop in a field in the Shomali plains, about 30 kms north of Kabul on July 8, 2009.

SHAH MARAI/AFP/Getty Images

 

[bengalraider]

A man stands on the river bank in the village of Garm, some 250km from Dushanbe, on July 12, 2009.

VYACHESLAV OSELEDKO/AFP/Getty Images

An Afghan Kochi tribesman holds a picture of former Afghan finance minister and then-presidential candidate Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai during an election campaign rally in Kabul on July 23, 2009.

SHAH MARAI/AFP/Getty Images

 

[bengalraider]

Afghan brides sit during a mass marriage ceremony of 50 Afghan couples in Herat province on Aug. 7, 2009.

SHAH MARAI/AFP/Getty Images

An Afghan gets searched by an Afghan National Police Officer on Aug. 13, 2009 at a checkpoint in the outskirds of Kandahar City, Afghanistan.

Marcel Mettelsiefen/Getty Images

 

[bengalraider]

An Afghan man rubs his eyes waiting for his breakfast at a tea house decorated with pictures of provincial election candidates in the old city of Herat on Aug. 16, 2009.

BEHROUZ MEHRI/AFP/Getty Images

Afghan drug addicts smoke heroin and crystal meth in the ruins of the old city of Herat on Aug. 18, 2009.

BEHROUZ MEHRI/AFP/Getty Images

 

[bengalraider]

Swan paddle boats sit at the edge of one of the six lakes that make up Band-E-Amir National Park on Sept. 6, 2009. Located in the province of the Bamiyan Buddhas, in central Afghanistan, the park was declared Afghanistan's first National Park on April 22, 2009. Its designation as a National Park will allow Afghanistan to apply for international recognition of Band-e-Amir as a UNESCO World Heritage site. Band-e-Amir has been a destination for Afghan tourists since at least the early 1950s, but tourism significantly declined during the 20 years of wars and Taliban rule.

Paula Bronstein/Getty Images

A policeman of the Afghan National Police controls traffic at a checkpoint in Kabul on Oct. 11, 2009.

MICHAEL KAPPELER/AFP/Getty Images

 

[bengalraider]

Pupils sitting on the floor listen to their teacher on Oct. 11, 2009 at Nasoana school in Kabul, where some 3,500 pupils attend lessons. The school is mainly made of tents, or rooms with missing windows and no heating.

MICHAEL KAPPELER/AFP/Getty Images

An Afghan man drives a horse cart to pick up bricks ready for firing in the brick oven on Nov. 6, 2009 in Kabul, Afghanistan. Brick factories are an economical, business that is still thriving. The land used is dry and barren which is perfect for the making of bricks providing work almost all the year round. A few years ago all factories changed from wood to coal causing further problems with pollution, the factories have been pushed out of the city limits because of this issue.

Paula Bronstein/Getty Images

 

[bengalraider]

An Afghan boy works with other young laborers loading bricks onto a truck on Oct. 16, 2009 in Kabul, Afghanistan. Child labor is common at the brick factories where the parents already employed and desperate to make more money enlist their children to help doing the easy jobs.

Paula Bronstein/Getty Images

An Afghan boy flies a kite in a cemetery.

Paula Bronstein/Getty Images

 

[bengalraider]

Afghan women harvest tomatoes after farm crops were damaged by a spell of cold weather in Badam Bagh farm run by the private National Organization of Women and funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development on the outskirts of Kabul on Oct. 26, 2009.

ROMEO GACAD/AFP/Getty Images

A man passes by Darul-Aman palace Oct. 31, 2009 in Kabul, Afghanistan. Darul-Aman Palace was once the masterpiece of Kabul built by King Amanullah in the 1920s but today lies in ruins after years of unrest in the country.

Majid Saeedi/Getty Images

 

[bengalraider]

Afghan horsemen compete for the goat carcass during a game of Buzkashi in Kabul on Nov. 6, 2009. The ancient game of Buzkashi is an Afghan national sport which is played between two teams of horsemen competing to throw a goat carcass into a scoring circle.

MASSOUD HOSSAINI/AFP/Getty Images

Afghan soldiers are armed with U.S.-made M16 rifles as they take part in combat training at the Afghan National Army training camp on the outskirts of Kabul on Dec. 28, 2009.

SHAH MARAI/AFP/Getty Images

 

[bengalraider]

French soldiers walk on a hilltop near the Tora French Military Camp in Surobi district in Kabul province on Dec. 15, 2009.

MASSOUD HOSSAINI/AFP/Getty Images

 

[bengalraider]

Quiet trip to Afghanistan​

SUJAN DUTTA AND ARCHIS MOHAN

New Delhi, Jan. 15: The chief of India’s military intelligence outfit quietly visited Afghanistan last week for briefings from Afghan, US and Nato officials.

The US President’s special envoy on Afghanistan-Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, is also slated to visit Delhi for three days from Sunday.

Holbrooke, who is currently in Pakistan, is scheduled to leave on Tuesday when US defence secretary Robert Gates is slated to visit India.

Lt Gen. R.K. Loomba, the director general of military intelligence (DGMI), visited the headquarters of the Afghan National Army (ANA) in Kabul last week. He also met officials of Nato’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

A senior army source told The Telegraph the DGMI was assessing preparations of the Afghan National Army in the wake of the US announcing a surge-and-exit policy through this year. Washington has a timetable for withdrawal of its troops from 2011.

Indian military sources assess that the pullout would be gradual and Afghan National Army units would be asked to take over charge of areas sector by sector. India is involved in training ANA officers in India but quiet proposals have been floated for the deployment of Indian instructors in Afghanistan for the Afghan army.

The army chief, Gen. Deepak Kapoor, said the commitment to Afghanistan would continue as soft support. Indian Army instructors have also been involved in teaching English to ANA officers.

Lt Gen. Loomba’s visit to Afghanistan was a month after the chief of the US Pacific Command, Adm. Robert Willard, visited New Delhi for discussions on security assessments in South Asia. He had said India has to decide if it wanted to expand its role in Afghanistan.

Holbrooke is likely to meet foreign minister S.M. Krishna, foreign secretary Nirupama Rao and the national security adviser on Monday.

Holbrooke’s likely brief is to assess India’s position ahead of the London Conference on Afghanistan (January 28-February 1).

The conference will be co-hosted by UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon.

Brown had said the objective of the conference was to “drive forward our campaign in Afghanistan, to match the increase in military forces with an increased political momentum, to focus the international community on a clear set of priorities across the 43-nation coalition and marshal the maximum international effort to help the Afghan government deliver”.

The Telegraph - Calcutta (Kolkata) | Frontpage | Quiet trip to Afghanistan

Good quiet backyard diplomacy at work!

 

[F-14]

ok siit back and relax i sense a statement from the GoP soon or a rant from Sir zaid hamid

 

[sob]

We need to remain engaged with the Afgan authorities long after the US/NATO troops have withdrawn.
These engagement have to be necessarily low key due to the senstivities of some people involved.