SOURCE: DEEPAK HILORI/ FOR MY TAKE / IDRW.ORG
According to the latest media report, with the fall of Kabul to the Taliban, India activated its first foreign base in Ayni airbase in Tajikistan that was recently used as a base for IAF’s C-17 and C-130 Transporter to evacuate Indians stuck in Afghanistan in the last few days. India for a brief period also had deployed a small fleet of Sukhoi-30MKI at the base recently perhaps to send signals to the players in Afghanistan about its indent.
Taliban since taking over power in Kabul have promised that country won’t be used as a base to attack other countries as proxies and according to some media outlets, India has been assured that by the high command of the Taliban that they won’t be sending their cadres into Kashmir nor will allow Pakistan to use Afghanistan as a terror training facility that it used to be before Americans walked in after 9/11.
Indian Intelligence reports are already warning about the possibility of Pakistan moving some of the terror training facilities back to south Afghanistan close to the Pakistan border after it came to light about pro-Taliban rallies were held by the Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (POK) to show their loyalties to the common cause and also its desire to collaborate in Kashmir.
Deployment of a small fleet of Su-30MKI might be symbolic but it is also done to drive home a message to the Taliban that they are bound to keep their word of not allowing Afghanistan to be turned into backward for the Pakistani military and their proxies to be used as a training base for their operations in Kashmir but also act as a deterrence about possible Indian airstrikes if Afghanistan is again turned into a terror factory of the world that it once was.