Taleban keep pipeline promise

Two Taleban military commanders tell Killid the Taleban will keep its promise not to sabotage the TAPI pipeline. The Ministry of Interior has dismissed the claims of two Taleban commanders.

Two Taleban military commanders tell Killid the Taleban will keep its promise not to sabotage the TAPI pipeline. The Ministry of Interior has dismissed the claims of two Taleban commanders.
The pipeline project TAPI (an acronym of the names of the four partners, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India) was launched in December 2010. Work on a survey was scheduled to be completed by the end of this year. Construction work was to begin next year and end by 2017. The pipeline was expected to be made operational early the following year.
Killid interviewed local Taleban commanders in two troubled districts in Herat and Farah. The natural gas pipeline from Turkmenistan will enter through Balabollok district in Farah province and go through Herat, Kandahar and onwards to Baluchistan and Multan in Pakistan. The Taleban could threaten security in Keshk-e-Rebat Sangi in Herat and Balabollok district.
Mawlawi Dastageer, a Taleban commander in Keshk-e-Rebat Sangi district, said the authorities of two countries that are partners in the project have promised financial assistance in return for protection for the pipeline. However, Mohammad Ewaz, a Taleban commander in Balabollok said Iran, which has helped the Taleban, ordered them to attack infrastructural projects. The two main targets were the Bakhsh Abad dam on the Farah river and the TAPI pipeline. But the Taleban military council has taken a decision not to attack TAPI. According to Ewaz, the decision was made after huge amounts of money were paid to the Taleban by the contracting countries.
Killid also interviewed Yusuf Ahmadi, the Taleban spokesperson who declared their decision was not final, and could change when the project starts.

Police protection
The Ministry of Interior has dismissed the claims of the two commanders. Its spokesperson Sidiq Sidiqi said the national police would be able to protect the pipeline. Many hundred policemen would be deployed to ensure nothing untoward happens. Sidiqi was of the opinion that considering the preparation by the government the Taleban would not have the ability to threaten the pipeline.
Political observers think the assurance of security would boost the project.  Humayun Nazari said there was optimism the economic situation would improve. For Afghanistan TAPI spelt “golden opportunity”, whereas it was a symbol of failed diplomacy for some neighbouring countries, he added.

Regional rivalries
Serajudin Seraj, a deputy spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), said the Asian Development Bank (AsDB) was the project’s biggest investor, putting in between 6.5 and 8 billion USD. He said Afghanistan would earn 500 million USD annually as transit fee for the pipeline.
The 1,735-km pipeline would carry one milliard cubic meter gas annually from Turkmenistan to Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. Seraj said India and Pakistan would each get 38 million cubic metres. The rest would come to Afghanistan.
But all this is only on paper. Narrow regional rivalries could torpedo the project.
Political watcher Mir Mohammad Yaqub Mashaoof said Iran, which wants to dominate the region, has been pushing the Peace Pipeline project to take natural gas from its fields to Pakistan and India. The latter has prevaricated on the project under immense pressure from the US. According to Mohammad Younus Rasouli, the deputy governor of Farah province, Iran spends millions of dollars annually to prevent Afghanistan from becoming self-sufficient in gas (TAPI) and water (Aksha Abad dam).
Iranian embassy officials in Kabul refused to be interviewed while the Iranian consulate in Herat has always rejected all allegations of interference in Afghanistan.
Neither would Indian embassy officials speak to Killid on the TAPI project. Mohammad Rafiq Shaheer who heads Herat’s council of experts, observed the pipeline is mired in the politics of the subcontinent. “India is concerned that Pakistan would have to pay toll for the pipeline passing through the country. Pakistan is also trying to use the pipeline to pressure India,” he said.
TAPI on the other hand would bind the region with the four participating countries having a stake in its smooth functioning, said observers. For Afghanistan, it will provide an estimated half a million jobs in Herat, Farah, Kandahar and Helmand – the entire route of the pipeline. Provincial authorities and the police in Herat who said they would take special steps for the speedy implementation of the project said they have not been consulted at the local level. Similarly Farah Deputy Governor Rasouli said no discussions have taken place with him.
Authorities in Helmand also said no work has been done for the implementation of the project. The pipeline goes from Farah to Helmand, through the border district of Dishoo and Khanneshin in Helmand to Kandahar. Mohammadullah Zwak, the spokesperson of Helmand, said nothing has been done for security for TAPI.
TAPI could be the answer to the country’s chronic power shortages and joblessness. Locals interviewed in Herat, Farah and Kandahar wanted the new president to make the project a priority, and start work. “We will take to the streets in protest,” threatened a local who did not want to be identified in Herat.