India funded a range of small-scale development projects in Afghanistan. These are in almost all provinces of Afghanistan; the projects are high-impact, low-cost, and concentrated in Pashtun border areas, of great concern to Pakistan, hence the accusation of Indian consulates being fronts for espionage. Pakistan has every reason to believe that these projects serve India’s strategic goals of developing a pro-Indian Kabul.

It is on record that spymaster Vikram Sood of RAW admitted a growing sense in India that stronger relations with Afghanistan’s Pashtun leaders were critical not just to increase India’s presence inside Afghanistan, but also with Baloch separatists. Karzai knew of, and did not obstruct, the presence of Baloch separatist leaders such as Brahamdagh Bugti on Afghan soil. Soon after 2002, India began developing its covert infrastructure to cultivate what Indian officials called their ‘Baloch’ and ‘Pashtun’ cards.

Afghanistan’s intelligence agency, the National Directorate of Security (NDS), then under Mohammad Arif Sarwari, who had an excellent rapport with India since the civil war years, was a strong ally. With Karzai’s permission, Arif began dispatching NDS officers for training to India, unlocking new and heightened levels of intelligence cooperation. Arif’s successor, Amrullah Saleh, also had a close relationship with India’s National Security Advisor M. K. Narayanan.

Since independence, India has been active in Afghanistan, and the intentions are not entirely noble, as corroborated by the detailed accounts in My Enemy's Enemy: India in Afghanistan from the Soviet Invasion to the US Withdrawal by Dr Avinash Paliwal.

Paliwal writes: “A serving member of the Indian parliament, Retired Colonel Bashir Hussain Zaidi, was dispatched to Afghanistan to meet Ghaffar Khan in late September and explore the possibility of reigniting the Pashtūnistān issue. The 85-year-old leader was ‘full of vigour and enthusiastic about waging his struggle for emancipation from Pakistan’s rule’.

Ghosts Of Empire: The Roots Of The Durand Faultline - Part 1

Within India, the Pashtun Jirga-e-Hind, an outfit advocating for independent Pashtūnistān, also pressured the government to move beyond the war of words. In November 1965, addressing a fully packed Lok Sabha, EAM Swaran Singh invited Ghaffar Khan to resume his struggle for Pashtun independence from Indian soil and promised all support that he would require in that pursuit. Soon, All-India Radio (AIR) broadcast that Pashtun nationalists were setting up administrative centres in Pakistan’s tribal areas and NWFP, to advance the Pashtūnistān campaign.”

It is becoming evident that many within the Taliban shura who issue rigid decrees on women’s education and personal freedoms do not apply these restrictions to their own families

The Royals, with all their quirks and greed, were still better for Pakistan, as observed by Paliwal: “Zahir Shah was ambiguous about Indo-Pakistan relations and was not supportive of India in its conflicts........

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