“Insurgency Spilling out of Afghanistan will be Dealt as We Deal with Terrorists:” CDS Bipin Rawat
NEW DELHI, Aug 25: The Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat said the insurgency spilling out of Afghanistan into India would be dealt in a same way as India deal with terrorism at present.
He also said India would welcome additional support in the form of intelligence input as it does its part in fighting the global war against terrorism. “As far as Afghanistan is concerned, we’ll make sure that any activity likely to flow out of Afghanistan and find its way into India will be dealt with in the manner in which we’re dealing with terrorism in our country,” Rawat said at the Observer Research Foundation (ORF)’s event ‘The India-US Partnership: Securing the 21st Century.’
His request was directed at the Quad nations. He was also accompanied by Command Admiral John Aquilino who is the commander of the US Indo-Pacific.
Rawat also said India anticipated the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan though the speed at which the entire country was ran over baffled it. India on Tuesday made it clear at the United Nation Human Rights Council session its expectation that the Afghanistan’s soil won’t not be used to foment terrorist activities aimed at creating instability in the region.
Indramani Pandey, India’s permanent representative to the UN in Geneva, outlined that New Delhi expected that the rights of Afghan women, aspirations of Afghan children and the rights of minorities would be respected. India also gave shelter to Afghan refugees who fled the war-torn country after the Taliban laid siege to it.
The Taliban, however, informally requested India last week to retain its diplomatic presence in Afghanistan. Senior Taliban leader Sher Mohammed Abbas Stanekzai told Indian authorities that it was aware of India’s concerns regarding its officials and diplomats in the country. Stanekzai was responding to concerns that fighters from the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) were deployed at check posts set up by the Taliban on the route to the international airport in Kabul.
(Manas Dasgupta)
