Indian envoy in Qatar holds talks with Taliban

INDIAN Ambassador to Qatar Deepak Mittal on Tuesday (31) met top Taliban leader Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, one of the prominent voices in the extremist group’s political office in Doha, marking the first formal diplomatic engagement since the change of guard in Kabul on August 15.

According to sources in India’s foreign ministry, Mittal met Stanikzai at the request of the Taliban, Reuters reported.

New Delhi has expressed concerns time and again after the Taliban have recaptured power in Afghanistan in the wake of the withdrawal of the US-led western forces from that country. The foreign ministry said the two sides spoke over the safety of Indians who have been left behind in Afghanistan.

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Mittal told Stanikzai, who had once trained at the Indian Military Academy in Dehradun in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand, about India’s fears that anti-India militants could use Afghanistan’s soil to mount attacks, the foreign ministry added.

“The Taliban representative assured the ambassador that these issues would be positively addressed,” the ministry said, according to the Reuters report.

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The diplomatic talks took place days after Stanikzai was quoted in the local press as saying that the Taliban wanted to have political and economic ties with India.

India has made investments worth billions in development work in Afghanistan and set up close ties with the US-backed civilian government in Kabul that fell earlier this month. But with the rapid advance of the Taliban, New Delhi faced more pressure and criticism over not opening communication channels with the extremist outfit which has returned to power in Kabul after 20 years.

Sources in the Indian government said that informal contacts were set up with the Taliban political leaders in Doha in June. The Indian establishment feared that the Taliban’s victory in Afghanistan will embolden the anti-India militant groups in Pakistan and the repercussions will be felt in Muslim-majority Kashmir.

“Ambassador Mittal raised India's concern that Afghanistan's soil should not be used for anti-Indian activities and terrorism in any manner,” the foreign ministry said.

India, along with Russia and Iran, supported the Northern Alliance when the Taliban were last in power in Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001. The alliance pursued armed resistance against them.

Stanikzai, who has spoken softly on India of late, had informally reached out to India last month asking it not to shut down its embassy in Kabul, Reuters cited government sources as saying.