Countering the IS threat

THIS Monday’s meeting of intelligence service chiefs from Pakistan, Afghanistan, China and Russia should evoke considerable soul searching in the Indian security establishment. Despite positioning itself on the frontline in the fight against militant Islam, India could not earn an invite to the meeting. The establishment seems to console itself with the notion that since Islamabad was off-limits because of the poor state of bilateral relations, the absence of an invite was infructuous because India wouldn’t have attended the meet anyway.

But the developing situation in Afghanistan is one that has portends for all countries in the region. There is much that is unexplained about the IS’ shadowy rise in Afghanistan. The trepidation is felt by all the countries, especially because there is none from where youth had not volunteered for the IS “caliphate” in Iraq. A section of separatists in Kashmir has been signalling its enchantment with the IS but its presence is disputed and ideology contested by the likes of Yasin Malik and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq. That is why it is all the more important that India should be more involved in regional confabulations aimed at coordinating steps to prevent the trickling of IS terrorists from Syria and Iraq to Afghanistan where from they would pose risks for neighbouring countries.

It is no secret that there are two axes operating in the region: one led by the US and the other by Russia-China, sometimes at cross-purposes. India, where sharpened communal discord in recent years could enhance the lure of fringe organisations, needs to remain constantly plugged into both vectors. Washington’s aversion to enlarging its political and military footprint in Afghanistan makes it critical for India to ensure that its animus towards Pakistan does not brand it as a spoilsport among other neighbours. Although PM Modi has attempted to balance his foreign policy at the fag end of his term by reaching out to Russia and China, New Delhi has to enhance its credibility quotient. The Afghan IS threat needs to be crushed in infancy. There can be no better allies for India than countries that will feel the pinch if the wound is allowed to putrify.