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India to send wheat to Afghans through Tajikistan

India will send wheat aid to Afghanistan through Tajikistan following Islamabad's refusal to let the Indian grain pass through Pakistan, Junior Foreign Minister Omar Abdullah said on Tuesday.

Pakistan Food Minister Khair Mohammad Junejo said at the weekend Islamabad would not allow the transit of Indian wheat through Pakistan following reports that the grain had diseases that could infect Pakistani wheat.

India, which has pledged to supply one million tonnes of wheat as part of its humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan, on Monday denied its grain carried fungus or other diseases.

The war of words has broken out while India and Pakistan are locked in a bitter military standoff, provoked by an attack on the Indian Parliament in December that New Delhi blames on Pakistani-based Kashmiri separatist groups.

"If Pakistan does not want the wheat to be shipped through their country we will send the wheat through Tajikistan or any other friendly country," Abdullah told reporters in Mumbai.

Industry officials said Tajikistan, a Central Asian country bordering Afghanistan, may not be an easy alternative because it is landlocked and India would have to take on additional transport costs.

The UN World Food Programme has said it is aware of the concern in Pakistan and Iran that the "wheat grain may originate from areas in India where the presence of a fungus known as Karnal Bunt was observed before".

But Indian Food Minister Shanta Kumar has denied Pakistani allegations.

"The wheat to be supplied to Afghanistan was the same that was exported to 27 countries. None of the importing countries had made any complaint about the quality of the wheat," he said.

India, which resumed wheat exports in October 2000 after a gap of nearly three years, has set an export target of five million tonnes for 2001-02 (April-March).

It has contracted for exports of about 4.2 million tonnes of wheat since October 2000 of which about 3.7 million tonnes have been shipped, traders said.

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