Pakistan on Thursday described as “factually incorrect” the oft-repeated claim that India has 32 consulates in Afghanistan along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
That India is using these “consulates” to destabilise Pakistan is something that is frequently flagged by not just the religious right-wing parties but also some columnists.
Asked about a recent such claim made by a Pakistan Peoples Party legislator, Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit first sought to be non-committal by stating that “it is not for me to tell how many Indian consulates are working there” but then added: “I don't think that is correct. It is not factually correct.”
The Indian contention has been that India has an embassy in Kabul and consulates in Mazar-e-Sharif, Jalalabad, Kandahar and Herat. But, the mainstream narrative here has always contained references to scores of Indian facilitation centres along the porous Pakistan-Afghanistan border. These facilitation centres — alternatively referred to as consulates — are alleged to be engaged in subversive activities against Pakistan, particularly in the restive province of Balochistan and the strife-torn tribal agencies.
India needed
India's presence in Afghanistan has always been an eyesore for Pakistan but lately there is a growing realisation among the foreign policy elite that India — by virtue of being the largest economy in the region — has a role to play in that country's economic progress and prosperity. Pakistan also adopted an air of nonchalance last October when India and Afghanistan signed the Strategic Partnership Agreement. All that the Foreign Office said then was that this agreement — which entails Indians training Afghan security personnel — should not disturb regional stability.
