India in the Afghan War Diary

In the phonetic alphabet (alpha, bravo, charlie, delta, echo, foxtrot, golf, hotel, india…), the letter “i” is represented by “india”. This makes searching for “India” in the Afghan War Diary a bit of extra work, as grid systems and nomenclatures that use alphabetical numbering and reach the letter “I” end up having US military units or areas around bases that have nothing to do with India, called “India”. When you go through that and cut those out, I got about 82 entries. Almost all of them have to do with Indian road construction company and other contractors, NGOs, and other business operations in Afghanistan, the Indian Consulate or Embassy, and India’s positions in meetings with NATO or the US or Pakistan.

One interesting one I did find, dated October 23, 2007:

“At 1150Z, TF Nimroz reported 1x insurgent on a motorcycle crashed into a car belonging to a construction company at grid 41R MQ 431 527, in the Chakhansor district, Nimroz province. The motorcycle exploded. 1x construction worker was killed and 1x wounded. The ANP sent a QRF. The QRF struck an explosion possibly remote controlled IED, which killed 11x ANP, 1x Indian officer. 3x ABP and 4x ANP were wounded in the second explosion. It is unknown if the Indian officer was armed forces or police. ISAF tracking # 01-082.”

Seems that there was some kind of Indian military presence, perhaps associated with the Embassy or Consulate.

Author: Justin Podur

Author of Siegebreakers. Ecology. Environmental Science. Political Science. Anti-imperialism. Political fiction. Teach at York U's FES. Author. Writer at ZNet, TeleSUR, AlterNet, Ricochet, and the Independent Media Institute.