October 23, 2008
Its been dubbed the Afghan Mad Max Gauntlet. The Afghan Highway 1 Ring Road has been heralded as Afghanistan’s revival, and the great reconstruction of the infrastructure. Indians also dreamed of hooking it up to Iran and then to the Indian built Iranian port of Chahbahar. Today the Ring Road is an unmitigated disaster. Most of the bridges have been blown up and the Taliban and the 38 other anti-occupation forces run a gauntlet on the road. It is not safe, and it does not allow ISAF and NATO to reach hot spots in a hurry. Those risking to run the gauntlet are trapped by the insurgents, kidnapped, held ransom, or simply killed and blown-up.
Zarang Delaram Road links the Afghan
Death stalks the highway to hell by Salih Muhammad Salih, Abubakar Siddique
Following its reconstruction in 2003, the Kabul to Kandahar highway was seen as a logistical lifeline that would bring hope and promise for Afghanistan’s future.
But today the nearly 500-kilometer route, known as Highway One, might arguably symbolize the dangers ahead as the country continues its efforts to defeat the Taliban and other "enemies of Afghanistan", to borrow the government’s phrase for insurgents and other brigands undermining central authority.
Afghans who use the road warn that it has become exceedingly treacherous, with Taliban and other armed gangs frequently kidnapping and killing travelers between the capital and the southern city of Kandahar. Death stalks the highway to hell By Salih Muhammad Salih, Abubakar Siddique (Asia Times)
Already all the roads to Kabul are in Talib control. America made a critical mistake in imposing a non-Pashtun Northern Alliance anti-Pakistan Karzai government in Kabul. Pakistan and Pashtuns will never tolerate a Northern Alliance government in Kabul. The worst thing America can do right now, is to invade the FATA areas. This will unite the Talibs as never before, and the fall of Kabul will be expedited.American policy makers are blind to all this. Just like they never found WMDs in Iraq, they will never find OBL in Pakistan.
Map of Afghanistan and rail road line
Indian Chahbahar vs Pakistani Gwador to China & C. Asia
The sailors of yesteryear, and the nations they represented, Amerigo Vespucci, Christopher Columbus and Vasco De Gama stepped over each other seeking a the shortest route to the South Asian Subcontinent. Today many of the same nations plus the anchient powers who are now independent, are seeking the shortest route to Central Asia.
Two visions for Central Asia are emerging. One vision was to link Gwador to China and Central Asia. The counter-move is the Indian threat first build a new port in Iran and then to connect this new Iranian port city of Chahbahar to the Kabul and beyond (India is building parts of a highway from Chabahar (in Iran) through Afghanistan to Tajikistan (Chabahar-kabul-Kunduz-Badakhshan) which will enable India to have a transport corridor to the otherwise inaccessible Central Asian region).
Locals working with the government, aid agencies, or connected to Westerners are targeted. So, too, are Western and Afghan convoys ferrying supplies between foreign military bases along the route.
"Armed people, Taliban, or whoever it is using their name stop vehicles on the highway," Kandahar resident Zainullah says in describing a recent experience on Highway 1 to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL). "[The armed men] take a few passenger buses away and search them thoroughly; they take away people whom they suspect [work for the government or are their opponents] and kidnap and kill them."
He complains that "Afghan police or the Afghan National Army are nowhere to be seen along the road".
"The Taliban even stop and confiscate vehicles very close to the police checkpoints," Zainullah says, "but the police do little to stop them." Death stalks the highway to hell By Salih Muhammad Salih, Abubakar Siddique (Asia Times)
Afghan forces using inferior weapons with jezails
The 5000 year old ancient trade routes between Pakistan and China are being revived with modern freeways that were ocnstructed 20 years ago. 5000 years ago the Harrappan Pakistanis were trading with the Chinese.
Pakistan is linked to Afghanistan via the Khyber pass. This is Afghanistan’s only access to the ocean. New roads are being constructed to build alternate routes to Kabul via Iran. Because the US does not work with Iran directly, India has been chosen as a proxy to build the road and connect it to the new Iranian port of Chahbahar.
Insurgent tactic
Over the past six months, security concerns about Afghanistan’s main highway, or ring road - portions of which stretch from the capital in east-central Afghanistan to Kandahar in the south, and from there to Herat in the west - have risen dramatically.
Last week, a bus carrying 50 people traveling from Kandahar to Herat was ambushed by Taliban forces. Days later, a purported Taliban spokesman announced that 27 of the passengers had been executed after a Taliban court determined that they were Afghan National Army troops.
On the Kabul to Kandahar route in late June, a convoy carrying fuel and food supplies for the US military came under attack. The ambush reportedly left seven drivers dead.
The incidents are part of an apparent Taliban strategy to put pressure on the government by increasing attacks on three major routes leading from the east, southeast and southwest to the capital, Kabul.
Disrupting Highway One, whose reconstruction was a joint effort funded in large part by the United States, Japan and Saudi Arabia - is a major part of that strategy.
Once a symbol of the Cold War struggle for influence - the Kandahar to Herat section was built by the Soviets, the Kabul-Kandahar route by the United States in the 1960s - it had most recently been showcased as evidence of the West’s commitment to rebuilding Afghanistan.
The Kabul to Kandahar route was reconstructed after eight months of work in 2003, at an estimated cost of nearly $200 million.
The reconstruction of the 560-kilometer Kandahar-to-Herat route began in 2004, was projected to cost another $300 million, and was slated for completion in 2006. That has not happened, largely for security reasons, and subsequent US estimates have suggested the road will be completed by the end of this year, "as stipulated in the Afghan Compact" with the United States, according to USAID.
The road that India built.
Zarang Delaram Road links the Afghan "
Maps showing the relationship of the Indian base in Tajikistan and the trail of terror to Kabul that ends up in Pakistan
Indian Consulates spreading terror across borders
Reversing progress
The reopening of the Kandahar to Kabul route raised hopes among Afghans, and reduced a two-day, bone-jarring journey between the two cities to a mere six hours.
During a ceremony in Herat in 2005, then-US ambassador to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad called the highway "a symbol of Afghan renewal and progress".
The Kandahar-Herat section, too, was expected to cut a 12-hour trip in half.
But with dozens of bridges along the route destroyed, and the increase of violent attacks, the highway today highlights the overall increase in insecurity and the relative success of the Taliban.
Afghan authorities, meanwhile, maintain they are doing their best to improve security along the highway. Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Zmari Bashari reiterated his government’s resolve during a recent interview with RFE/RL, saying the ministry "has taken important steps to improve security along the major highways".
But he also acknowledged that "now we are working on new plans to find answers to the new threats along these roads".
Every day Afghans see sophisticated conspiracies behind the recent spate of attacks on Highway One.
Khalid Pashtun, a member of the Afghan parliament from Kandahar, blames "elements working for foreigners" for the recent destruction of many important bridges along the road.Death stalks the highway to hell By Salih Muhammad Salih, Abubakar Siddique (Asia Times)
Map of China Pakistan Karakorum road link
"We have complete information about the destruction of bridges - the Pakistanis and other foreigners in Taliban ranks are responsible for blowing up the bridges at the behest of other countries," Pashtun says. "In some cases we have conveyed to the [Afghan] Taliban through intermediaries that they should not destroy their country’s infrastructure as they, too, use it; but they strongly deny participating in such activities. Such actions are indeed atrocities against the Afghan people."
Pashtun adds that, apart from the Taliban, organized criminal gangs with high-level backers in the capital benefit from insecurity on the vital link between Kabul and Kandahar.
"The most interesting aspect of this is that people are taken to Kabul, and then freed after paying a ransom," Pashtun says. "The parliament has asked the police and the military to explain this. They have been told to establish new checkpoints and search everyone."
The Afghan Defense Ministry has responded, recently deploying troops at strategic locations along Highway One and establishing fresh checkpoints. It claims that patrols have also been increased.
But despite recent efforts, there is no denying that the symbolic road to recovery today serves as a reminder of an increasingly violent conflict. 2007, RFE/RL Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Washington DC 20036
INDIA IS BUILDING THE CHABAHAR PORT IN IRAN AND ALSO THE RAIL AND ROAD LINKS TO AFGHANISTAN
Indian countermoves to Gawador include the base in Tajikistan and port in Chahbahar Iran.
Maps showing the loacation of Chabahar
Map showing the Iranian road links to Afghanistan
CHENNAI: The Gwadar port being built by Pakistan with Chinese assistance in its Baluchistan coast has "serious strategic implications for India", Naval Chief, Admiral Sureesh Mehta has said. "Being only 180 nautical miles from the exit of the Straits of Hormuz, Gwadar, being bulit in Baluchistan coast, would enable Pakistan take control over the world energy jugular and interdiction of Indian tankers," he said delivering T S Narayanaswamy Memorial lecture in Chennai on Monday night. The challenge for India was to balance relations with China in such a manner that competition for strategic significance of space in the Indian Ocean leads to cooperation rather than conflict, he said
"The pressure for countries to cooperate in the maritime military domain to ensure smooth flow of energy and commerce on the high seas will grow even further," he said speaking on "Oceanic Influence on India’s Development in the next Decade." Talking about "Chinese designs on the Indian Ocean," Mehta said China had a strategy called `String of Pearls,’ as per which it seeks to set up bases and outposts across the globe, strategically located along its energy lines, to monitor and safeguard energy flows.
"Each pearl in the string is a link in a chain of the Chinese maritime presence," he said. "Among other locations, the string moves Northwards up to Gwadar deep sea port on Pakistan’s Makran coast. A highway is under construction joining Gwadar with Karachi and there are plans to connect the port with the Karakoram Highway, thus providing China a gateway to Arabian Sea," he said adding that this could pose a problem for India. Pak’s new port has strategic implications for India: Navy chief, 22 Jan 08
Pakistani cooperation is crucial in this part of the world. They are destabilizing a country of 150 million people which will have long term consequences for India, China, the Central Asian republics and Iran. If attempts to destabilization continue, the "Plan for a new American Century" (PNAC) will be further discredited as Pakistan will join revolutionary Iran and create a nexus with the economic powerhouse China or even a resurgent Russia.
We need to develop a "Pull theory" which would pull the insurgents into more productive endeavors like employment and economic prosperity. The only solution is a "Marshall Plan for Pakistan and Afghanistan". Build bridges, don’t blow them up.
