http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/photo.cms?photoid=1799437The Times of India -Breaking news, views. reviews, cricket from across IndiaIndian officers to train Afghan army
[26 Apr, 2007 l 0242 hrs IST
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NEW DELHI: India will soon send at least a dozen Army officers to war-ravaged Afghanistan to teach basic military fieldcraft and English skills to the fledgling Afghan army.
“The officers, who may include a couple of women, are being shortlisted for the task and will be from the infantry and education corps. Apart from English, the emphasis will be on weapon-handling, map-reading and other basic battalion procedures,’’ said an officer.
Considering Afghanistan’s strategic importance and its historical ties with India, New Delhi is already helping the Hamid Karzai government with several developmental projects.
India, on its part, is worried at the growing Taliban-Pakistan nexus in Afghanistan once again, holding that it is detrimental to the security situation in South Asia.
Among the Indian developmental projects underway in Afghanistan is the crucial 218-km Zaranj-Delaram road construction project by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO).
As reported earlier by TOI, concerted Taliban attacks on the personnel as well as the equipment of BRO has already pushed the project completion date from December 2007 to December 2008. The project cost, too, has zoomed up to Rs 682 crore, instead of the Rs 377.47 crore sanctioned for it by the Indian government.
India, incidentally, has also deployed 254 ITBP soldiers in Afghanistan to augment the ‘‘local security cover’’ provided to the 306 BRO personnel engaged in the project as well as their machinery deployed on the road, which traverses through the poppy-cultivation belt.
Pakistan, of course, continues to play the spoiler in Indian efforts to assist in the reconstruction of Afghanistan. Pakistan, for instance, continues to deny India transit rights through its territory for transportation of goods. This is precisely the reason why the Zaranj-Delaram road project has been taken up by India to gain better access to Afghanistan and beyond it to the energy-rich Central Asia