PREFACE
Afghanistan
is located at the crossroads of Central, South and West Asia, sharing its
borders with the Central Asian States of -Tajkistan, Uzbekistan and Turrkmenistan
on the north, Chinese province of Xinjiang in the east, Iran on the west
and south-west, and Pakistan and Pak-occupied territory of Kashmir on the
south and south-east. Due to its strategic placement Afghanistan became
the focal point of intense rivalry between Tsarist Russia and Britain during
the nineteenth century. Afghanistan remained at the centre stage of international
politics as a theatre in the cold war games of super powers with Pakistan
acting as the frontline state of USA for channelling its financial, material
and military supplies to the Afghan Mujahideen. Pakistan used this opportunity
to divert part of these supplies to Indian border states of Punjab and
Jammu and Kashmir, thereby pronloting the Klashnikov culture, trans-border
terrorism and religious extremism. In the post-cold war era, which has
witnessed the demise of USSR and establishment of an Islamic state led
by Mujahideen, Afghanistan has assumed importance due to its potential
to influence the societies and politics in its bordering countries. This
has amply been demonstrated by the events in Tajikistan. The Central Asian
states and Russia have responded by denouncing the export of terrorism
and Islamic extremism and by declaring the 'Inviolability of State Borders'.
They have acted together to defend the Tajik-Afghan border. Fresh eruption
of factional fighting in Afghanistan and shifting equations between the
rival groups has once again brought this region in the spotlight of international
attention.
It is in this backdrop
that the Himalayan Research and Cultural Foundation has devoted
the first of its Occasional Paper Series exclusively to the study of Afghanistan's
involvement in Central and South Asian politics and the challenges posed
thereby to these states.
K. Warikoo provides
an insight into the trans-border movements across the Tajik-Afghan border,
export of Islamic militancy from Afghanistan to Central Asian states and
the subsequent responses by these states and Russia to meet the new challenge.
Uma Singh examines
the involvement of Pakistan in funnelling military and other supplies to
Afghan Mujahideen and evaluates the negative results of the spread of klashnikov
culture, drug trafficking and Afghan refugee problem on the society and
politics in Pakistan.
A. K. Ray has
with the support of documentary evidence exposed the role of Pakistan in
manipulating Afghan Mujahideen and Islamist radicals in the ongoing terrorism
in Kashmir.
Excerpts from:
Afghanistan Factor
in Central and South Asian Politics
Himalayan Research
and Cultural Foundation
B-1054, Vasant Kunj,
New Delhi - 110070 (INDIA)
Published by:
Trans Asia Informatics
Post Box 10508
Jawaharlal Nehru University
Post Office
New Delhi -110067 (INDIA) |
