Given Afghanistan’s history, and more importantly geography which makes it Pakistan’s immediate neighbour, no surprise need be caused by frequent terrorist attacks in the country and in its capital Kabul. Hardly a day passes when violent incidents of varying magnitude, and import, are not reported.
The situation has grown worse in recent weeks with the commencement of the post-winter fighting season — the so-called “spring offensive” of the Pakistan-based and Pakistan-nurtured Taliban — which is launched around this time each year after the harsh Afghan winter recedes, and for the first time Afghanistan’s security forces are meeting the onslaught on their own, with the Western Allied forces having ended their combat mission.
And yet, it is necessary to note that the terrorist attack on the Park Palace Guesthouse in Kabul on Wednesday, in which four Indians were killed along with several Afghans and other foreign nationals, sits in a political context that is very different from earlier attacks in which Indians were made targets, in particular the one in 2010 in another Kabul guest house known to attract Indians.
India, on account of its unrivalled socio-economic aid to Afghanistan, had a relationship of warmth with the earlier Hamid Karzai government. This yielded a very supportive political atmosphere in which ameliorative steps would be taken by the host government in double-quick time, and all necessary assurances provided and acted upon, whenever Indian nationals and Indian entities came under threat or attack. Whether this proposition still holds under President Ashraf Ghani will be keenly watched.
