It is the end of an era! The Afghan mission in Delhi is likely to be shut down by the end of September.
While there is no official confirmation, according to reports—and a leaked letter by an Afghan journalist on the social media platform X—the embassy has written to the ministry of external affairs, citing its inability to continue functioning.
The embassy suspended its operations after the ambassador and other senior diplomats left India for Europe and the United States where they managed to secure asylum, a Reuters report had said.
There has been a crisis brewing in that part of Shantipath for some time now. The Taliban has been wanting to take control of embassies across the world. Ever since it came to power 2021, the Taliban has been trying to get their appointees accepted. It began with naming Suhail Shaheen as the ambassador to the United Nations, which did not work out.
In September, China became the first country to name an ambassador under the Taliban. "Mohammad Hassan Akhund, the Prime Minister of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, accepted the credentials of Mr Zhao Xing, the new Chinese ambassador to Afghanistan, during a ceremony," the Taliban administration's deputy spokesman, Bilal Karimi, had said in a statement
A similar effort was made in India as well. In May, a diplomatic representative in India was chosen by the Taliban to represent them. The choice to go with someone already in India was to “build trust and pave the way for better relations,’’ Times of India quoted Shaheen as saying.
The Afghan embassy had issued a clarification in May rejecting “the claims from an individual claiming to have taken charge of the mission at the behest of the Taliban. The embassy appreciates the consistent position of the Indian government for supporting the interests of the Afghan people while not recognising the Taliban regime in Kabul, as it has in the case with democratic governments around the world.”
The ministry of external affairs was aware of the tussle. At a weekly press briefing, spokesperson of the MEA Arindam Bagchi had said, “From our perspective, this is an internal matter of the Afghan embassy and we hope that they would resolve it internally.”
The embassy in India had been headed by Ambassador Farid Mamundzay, who was appointed by the Ashraf Ghani government. However, Mamundzay has been out of India.
India is yet to open a mission in Kabul. However, there is a technical team to coordinate humanitarian efforts.