Pak-India at proxy war in Afghanistan, says Forbes

Pakistan and India are at proxy war in Afghanistan, claimed the renowned American publication Forbes in a recent report.

The publication weaved its assertion in light of a recent event in which the US command demanded from India that it should increase military aid to the Afghan forces.

The report focused on the last week's meeting that included Commander Gen John Nicholson, who heads the US operations in Afghanistan, National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar and Defence Secretary G Mohan Kumar.

The report contended there was certainly more to the meeting which considered regional strategic issues. “This is a joint war command for deciding India’s course in the proxy war” it said.

The US considers India role in the training of the Afghan forces as crucial owing to the fact that India still uses Russian war technology and so do the Afghan forces, who have Russian helicopters.

General Nicholson had stated: “We are building the Afghan Air Forces as a critical component of security. That [the Afghan air force] is built on several airframes. Some are older Russian models integrating newer ones. We need more aircraft, and we are looking at how we can meet that need.”

The report said that India and the US in collaboration want action against Haqqani network, Daesh (Islamic State), Lashkar-e-Taiba, and Jaish-I-Mohammed.

It is pertinent to mention here that the US cut off $300 million in aid for the Pakistani military and tied it to operation against the Haqqani network. This aid was crucial for Pakistan in its fight against terrorism.

It must be noted that Pakistan has always denied the allegations against it and always tried to distance itself from the internal matters of Afghanistan.