India funded warlords instead of Afghan govt, say US documents

Instead of funding the President Ashraf Ghani-led Afghanistan government, India funded Afghan militia leaders, which, among other reasons, contributed to the sudden and unexpected capitulation and collapse of the government before the advancing Taliban forces in just about five days in early August 2021, documents recently made public by the US authorities on Tuesday indicated.

The latest report by SIGAR (Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction), released on Tuesday, quoted former Afghan Army general General Hibatullah Alizai, as saying: “Noor and Dostum and so on, went to India and got money from India to create a resistance in the North. That is good, but that money should have gone to the Afghan government to pay ANDSF forces’ salaries. That should have been directed to the central government to be distributed lawfully.”

Atta Mohammad Noor and Abdul Rashid Dostum are former militia leaders from the northern provinces of Afghanistan. ANDSF is the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces or the military of the Ghani-led regime.

Gen Alizai ruminates: “I as a commander was requesting money for operations and supplies, but I could not get it from the government. But Dostum got money just from making phone calls to the Indians. That funding should have gone to the central government and central bank.”

SIGAR is the US government's leading oversight authority on the Afghanistan reconstruction process. The latest report titled “Why the Afghan Security Forces Collapsed” focuses on the fateful days in August when the Taliban took control of the beleaguered country in the face of unexpected lack of resistance by government forces.

While money may not have been made available to the Ghani government, India provided military training scholarships on an annual basis to ANDSF personnel. When the government fell, more than 700 ANDSF personnel, still being trained in India, were allowed to stay on.

SIGAR is the US government's leading oversight authority on the Afghanistan reconstruction process that was mandated to examine the factors that contributed to the ANDSF’s collapse, including the underlying factors over the past 20 years that resulted in the underdevelopment of ANDSF military and police capabilities.

US forces operated in strife-torn Afghanistan for about 20 years pumping in about $90 billion as security-related aid.

According to the US Department of Defense, nearly $7.2 billion worth of aircraft, guns, vehicles, ammunition, and specialized equipment like night vision goggles and biometric devices were left behind by the withdrawing US forces from Afghanistan.

At least 78 aircraft worth $923.3 million, 9,524 air-to-ground munitions valued at $6.54 million, over 40,000 vehicles, more than 300,000 weapons, and nearly all night vision, were left behind. Â