Go Beyond Karzai

This article was written before the news of the gruesome and tragiccold-blooded murder of Shri K. Suryanarayan. Updates

Shri K. Suryanarayan, an Indian engineer working in Afghanistan for aBahrain-based company, is reported to have been kidnapped by unidentifiedelements on April 28, 2006. An individual, claiming to be from the Taliban, hasclaimed responsibility for the kidnapping on behalf of the Taliban and hasreportedly threatened to have him executed if the government of India does notwithdraw all Indian personnel working in Afghanistan.

The government of India, while rightly refusing to consider the demand of theTaliban, is at the same time reported to have rushed a team of officers/expertsheaded by a senior officer of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) to Kabul touse the good offices of the Afghan authorities for getting Mr. Suryanarayanreleased.

This is the second instance of kidnapping of an Indian national by elementsclaiming to belong to the Taliban in order to demand the withdrawal of theIndian nationals working in Afghanistan. A similar incident last year ended in atragedy with the kidnapped individual being executed by his kidnappers followingthe government of India's refusal to concede their demand.

While no one can fault the decision of the government of India to stand firmand reject the demand of the Taliban, one has the impression that its efforts topersuade the kidnappers to release him are repeating the same mistake as wascommitted last year--namely, relying almost totally on the good offices of theHamid Karzai government to get him released.

While Mr. Karzai is a good friend of India, his government has very littleinfluence over the Taliban, which is its sworn adversary. Nor has the US-ledinternational security assistance force deployed in Afghanistan the capabilityto get him released peacefully. They have the capability for commando action,which may not serve any useful purpose at present. Moreover, any Indian requestfor the assistance of the US-led force may provoke the Taliban into taking arigid stand

Presuming that the Taliban is really responsible for the kidnapping, it is analmost exclusively Pashtun organisation and its leadership and command andcontrol are based in the Pashtun areas of Pakistan. The government of Pakistanand the Pashtun leaders of Pakistan such as Maulana Fazlur Rahman of theJamaat-ul-Ulema Islam have greater influence over the Taliban than the Karzai government.

If not already done, the government of India should immediately work throughthe Pakistan-Afghanistan Pashtun network by contacting officials of the governmentof Pakistan as well as individual leaders such as Maulana Fazlur Rahman. Itshould also request respected Deobandi leaders of India to contact the Deobandileaders of the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) and seek their good offices.The US should also be requested to request Pakistan to use its good offices.

B. Raman is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. ofIndia, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies,Chennai