PAKISTANS offer to the Afghan government and NATO to train the Afghan Army has not even merited a response from these entities. Pakistan had even invited the Afghan Army Chief to visit Pakistan and assess its capability to train the Afghan Army but there was no positive response. Clearly the friendship and cooperation being offered is all one way so far. However, more disturbing is the continuing US effort to involve India in Afghanistan. Last week, General Petraeus declared once again that the US was working with India on the AfPak region. As he explained, even though India is not in the title of Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke, but he has certainly had a lot of activity with our Indian partners. Now there can be no ambiguity in this message - that India is the USs partner in policy operationalisation in Pakistan and Afghanistan. In this connection it has already been reported that India has begun training Afghan law enforcement personnel and Special Forces - even though the Americans have tried to keep the army nomenclature out of it, with the clear intent of deceiving Pakistan into thinking India is not involved in any military training in Afghanistan. For India such strategic ties with Kabul reflect a realisation of their aim of gaining access into Central Asia and its vast energy reserves as well as generally expanding its regional influence to bolster its superpower aspirations. For Pakistan such a development represents a direct security threat with India gaining access to conduct all manner of covert operations against Pakistan as well as competing for vital economic access. It is also within this milieu that Pakistan has to assess the Indian demands for land access across Pakistan into Afghanistan. Pakistans railway ministers desire to give India the rail access without any quid pro quo in terms of conflict resolution may fit into the ANPs historic pro-India agenda but it certainly goes against Pakistans strategic interests. Pakistan needs to at least ensure that India does not access the Afghan military and security forces - given how that would have long term debilitating consequences for Pakistan. Unfortunately the present set of rulers are so blinded by Washingtons unfulfilled commitments and promises that they are unable to see the threat of the expanding Indo-US cooperation on Afghanistan. As Petraeus put it, India is also involved in the US policy towards Pakistan, which should immediately alert this country of US intent. Ironically, despite claims to the contrary, the US continues to deal with the notion of AfPak which should tell the Pakistanis where they are positioned in US policy.