Gas via Pakistan? They don’t even allow health biscuits from India to reach poor Afghan kids

As of now, 100 grams of Indian biscuits are distributed to each of almost 1.5 million school children daily across Afghanistan, mainly in Kabul, Kandahar and Herat.

Ironically, these biscuits are in lieu of 1 million tonnes of wheat, which India had pledged to send every year but had to withdraw after Islamabad did not allow transit.

Until now, 290,000 tonnes of biscuits—which means over 400,000 tonnes of wheat used—have been transported to Afghanistan.

These biscuits are shipped from Mumbai to Bandar Abbas or Chabahar in Iran and then via road through the Iran-Afghanistan border into Herat and Kandahar (see map). A consignment of wheat would not have lasted that long.

Until 2008—the first consignment reached in February 2003—when India hopes to finish with the project, sources say, close to $25 million would have been spent on just transport alone. The straight and shortest route is by road through Pakistan via Lahore, Peshawar and Khyber Pass.

India has also raised the issue with Washington hoping that it can lean on Pakistan to reconsider its current policy.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had himself told US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld about the difficulties being faced because of Pakistan’s position not to open land transit between New Delhi and Kabul.

The biscuits have proved to be a major success for Indian efforts in Afghanistan: the packets bear a stamp of the Indian Flag, possibly one reason why Pakistan is so reluctant.

Kabul is said to have asked for continuing biscuit supplies beyond 2008 but officials said that without proper transit facility, the costs may be difficult to sustain.

It is believed that other donor countries have expressed interest in supplying these biscuits.