INDIA BUILDING UP ITS SECURITY CONTIGENT IN

C O N F I D E N T I A L NEW DELHI 001230 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/15/2016 TAGS: PREL PGOV EAID MARR IN AF SUBJECT: INDIA BUILDING UP ITS SECURITY CONTIGENT IN AFGHANISTAN, NOT "COMMANDOS" REF: NEW DELHI 548 Classified By: PolCouns Geoff Pyatt for Reasons 1.4 (B, D) ¶1. (C) Media reports that India was deploying "commandos" or "sec ret police" to Afghanistan were "rubbish," Joint Secretary (Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran) Dilip Sinha told SIPDIS PolCouns and Poloff on February 16. However, the growing security threats to India's Border Roads Organization (BRO) construction team working on the Zaranj-Delaram road in Western Afghanistan did lead the GOI to decide to gradually increase the strength of its garrison of Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) -- a national police force, not a military unit -- guarding the BRO camps and work sites (reftel). The ITBP deployment has risen to 120 from the previous 80-person strength, and over time will increase by another 120. However, the time taken to identify officers to take from other domestic assignments and brief them for the Afghanistan mission meant that this growth would be slow, Sinha said. The GOA is fully aware of India's deployment of personnel, Sinha added, and the rules of engagement (ROE) have not changed. (NOTE: Under the current ROE, the ITBP provides static perimeter security to BRO sites, while local Afghan police provide mobile security. ITBP is allowed to provide roving security for cash transport. END NOTE) The GOI has not yet decided how to beef up security for two other important construction projects requiring increased project personnel in the near future, the Salma dam and Pul-i-Khumri to Kabul power transmission line. However, Sinha implied that these projects too would require site security that the Afghan police alone cannot provide. ¶2. (U) Visit New Delhi's Classified Website: (http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/sa/newdelhi/) MULFORD