Pakistan against India-Afghanistan relationship: report

Raising questions on Pakistan's commitment towards a stable and peaceful Afghanistan, a recent US Congressional report has said that Islamabad is fearful of a strong relationship between India and the war-torn country.
According to the report by Congressional Research Service (CRS), Pakistan is spending its entire energy to deny strategic depth to India in Afghanistan.
"Experts and officials of many governments continue to debate whether Pakistan is committed to Afghan stability or to exerting control of Afghan decisions through the use of proxies and ties to insurgent groups," the report said.
"DOD (Department of Defense) reports on Afghanistan's stability repeatedly have identified Afghan militant safe haven in Pakistan as a threat to Afghan stability, and recent DOD reports state that Pakistan uses proxy forces in Afghanistan to counter Indian influence there," it said.

Noting that Pakistan's ultimate goal is that Afghanistan provides it strategic depth against India, the report, however, said that leaders in Pakistan appear to increasingly believe that instability in Afghanistan will be detrimental for their country and are actively promoting a political settlement within the war-torn country.
"Pakistan appears to anticipate that improved relations with Afghanistan's leadership will also limit India's influence in Afghanistan," the report said.

Pakistan has long asserted that India is using its embassy and four consulates in Afghanistan (Pakistan says India has nine consulates) to recruit anti-Pakistan insurgents, and that India is using its aid programmes to build influence there.

At a February 2013 meeting in Britain, Pakistan demanded that Afghanistan scale back relations with India and sign a strategic agreement with it that includes Pakistani training for the ANDSF.
Pakistan's Defense Secretary stated in January last year that his country would not accept a robust role for India in Afghanistan as international forces wind down involvement in the war-torn nation, the report said.
India's goals are to deny Pakistan "strategic depth" in Afghanistan, to deny Pakistan the ability to block India from trade and other connections to Central Asia and beyond, and to prevent militants in Afghanistan from attacking Indian targets in Afghanistan, the report said.

"India saw the Afghan Taliban's hosting of Al Qaeda during 1996-2001 as a major threat because of Al Qaeda's association with radical Islamic organisations in Pakistan seeking to end India's control" of part of Jammu and Kashmir, it said.
Some of these groups have committed major acts of terrorism in India, including the terrorist attacks in Mumbai in November 2008 and in July 2011, it added.
The report also said that China's involvement in Afghanistan has been primarily to secure access to Afghan minerals and other resources; to help its Pakistan ally avoid encirclement by India; and to reduce the Islamist militant threat to China itself.