On poll eve, Afghanistan seeks more pro active role by India

Identifying terrorism as the biggest threat facing Afghanistan, Abdali said India as a “close friend” must do more to help the country overcome security challenges besides extending help in its reconstruction.

“We would like to see India to be more proactive in terms of being on the side of Afghanistan to safeguard its own interest and help Afghanistan safeguard its interests. We would like to see more of that happening as soon as possible.  

“We are grateful to India for whatever it has done to Afghanistan. India has gone out of the way. But certainly we would like to see more in all areas. We are facing challenges that are common to us,” the Ambassador said.  

India has been involved in various infrastructure projects in the country besides providing military hardware to it.

To meet the challenges of combating terrorism, he advocated greater effort by India, China and Russia while emphasising that an “aggressive approach” must be adopted to deal with the problem in Afghanistan and in the region.  

“In the long run, we hope India, China and Russia engaging more than ever on Afghanistan and in the region as a whole. We would like to see more in terms of engagements so that we all are together in seeing the problem (terrorism) finished,” he said.

In an apparent reference to Pakistan, Abdali said Afghanistan was “under attack” from its own neighbours and it was time to “act swiftly” to combat the challenge that is “growing up every day”.