ISI-Afghan agreement: An undeclared war on India

The controversial agreement between Pakistan's ISI and the Afghan Intelligence has worried India. Although the same has been put on the back burner following several voices of dissent in Afghanistan, the idea of preparing such an agreement itself is very questionable.

Portions of the agreement that have been leaked suggest that there is an attempt made to put India in very bad light. If this agreement does see the light of the day then it would mean Afghanistan will put the ISI in very good light. It also would ensure that the intelligene wings of both countries will not deal with hostile nations.

The curious clauses in the Af-Pak agreement:

Recently the intelligence agencies of Pakistan and Afghanistan entered into an agreement aimed at improving ties and cooperation. Among the various clauses that are part of the agreement, the one which states that the intelligence agencies of both countries shall not cooperate with hostile nations comes as a surprise to India.

India had built a rapport with Afghanistan and had been indulging in intelligence sharing. A large part of the Afghanistan establishment saw Pakistan as the hostile nation. However now India suspects that some meddling done by the United Kingdom was a result of this agreement being reached.

Since Ashraf Ghani took over as the President of Afghanistan, he has titled more towards Pakistan. Moreover Indian officials suspect that he could have been coaxed by the British to go ahead with such an agreement. India however wonders what interest the UK could have in having such an agreement signed between the intelligence agencies of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

ISI has already started feeding false information:

The Taliban had recently launched its spring offensive. The spring offensive is launched every April by the Taliban and as part of this operation they carry out a spate of attacks. One got to witness a series of attacks that were carried out by the Taliban.

However it was the ISI which fed the Afghanistan intelligence with information suggesting that it was India which was behind these attacks. Knowing fully well that the Taliban carries out attacks with the help of the ISI, the Afghan intelligence remained mute. This is largely due to one clause in the agreement that states that the intelligence agencies of Afghanistan and Pakistan shall not criticize each other in public.

Moreover the ISI is trying to ensure that for Afghanistan, India becomes the hostile nation. If Afghanistan is to go forward with the agreement with the ISI, then there will be no intelligence sharing with India. For India the intelligence from Afghanistan is very crucial since most of the activities carried out terrorist groups there affects India.

Did UK play a role?

Since the agreement became public, there have been voices of dissent in Afghanistan too. Ashraf Ghani who was supporting this agreement had to backtrack under pressure and keep the agreement at bay. Indian suspects that there was a hand of the United Kingdom in putting together this agreement.

India is watching closely these developments. An official in the Intelligence Bureau in India says that it is hard to understand what the UK stands to gain out of this exercise. There is information that this controversial agreement was prepared with the help of the UK.