On Friday morning, 4 terrorists launched an attack on Indian Consulate in Herat from a building neighboring it. The Afghan security forces bravely countered their attack gunning down all the terrorists. No major casualties were reported.

Since the fall of Taliban in 2001, Indian embassy in Kabul and its consulates in certain provinces of Afghanistan have been attacked for a couple of times. These attacks have cost lives of scores of Indians and Afghan civilians.

Such attacks raises the question that why time and again the Taliban target Indians in Afghanistan? Many countries currently present in Afghanistan provide military and non-military services here. The countries that supported the Taliban during their government have never been attacked. However, the Taliban seem to be targeting Indians particularly. There are so many reasons but one major reason that is quite clear is that the extremist groups do not like Indian model of government in Afghanistan.

India is the biggest democracy of the world in spite of having large number of ethnic, religious and lingual divisions. India is supporting Afghanistan in building its social sector and has no military presence. Also, India has granted $2 billion of aid for Afghanistan which will be spent on the social development here. There is no reason for repeated Taliban attacks on Indians in Afghanistan except that India is supporting democracy in Afghanistan. Taliban are simply against any kind of democratic government in Afghanistan. The Taliban oppose all kind of political pluralism and ignore the ethnical, cultural and lingual diversity of the country. Their tenure was the darkest chapter in the history of Afghanistan.

It is to mention here that Taliban’s slogan that they are against the foreign countries’ presence in Afghanistan is completely baseless. Less-democratic countries that have civilians and one or other kind of involvement in Afghanistan have never been attacked in the way Indians are. So Taliban are the enemy of democracy and democratic government in Afghanistan.

India and Afghanistan have enjoyed close and very friendly ties and the cooperation between that two is expected to be extended further in the future. It is for sure that such attacks cannot negatively impact the relation existing between Afghanistan and India. Both face the common challenge of insurgency which can be fought by coming together. It is hoped that India will continue to support the government and the people of Afghanistan.