NEW DELHI, Dec 9: Afghanistan’s interim government, which is set to take office in a fortnight in Kabul, has sought India’s assistance in setting up an “effective policing system” in the war-ravaged nation, officials said on Sunday.

The multi-ethnic interim administration, to hold office for six months, has also sought “other helps” from India to put civil life back on the rails especially in urban centres, Indian officials said.

They said the requests came from Yunus Qanooni, the designated interior minister in Afghanistan’s new authority, during his ongoing tour of India.

Qanooni arrived here on Thursday in the first high-level official contact between India and the incoming Afghan administration since a pact in Bonn last week set up a 30-member interim government for the shattered country.

“He extended his stay in India by two days until December 12 as his engagements are still on,” an official said after Qanooni met Indian Home Minister Lal Krishna Advani and Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh overnight in New Delhi.

Advani confirmed his Afghan counterpart asked for New Delhi’s help in establishing a law-enforcement administration in Afghanistan, parts of which are in a state of anarchy due to a power vacuum created by the Taliban’s rout.

India has offered a 100-million-dollar credit line to Kabul, one million tons of free wheat and is currently sending medical supplies and emergency stores on military planes to the country.

Well-placed Indian sources also said Qanooni extended his stay to establish contact with a number of high-profile Afghans living in India.

“Right now Qanooni is at an undisclosed location but tomorrow he would be meeting with some of the Afghan personalities here,” one source said.—AFP