Afghan Foreign Minister Muttaqi visits Darul Uloom Deoband Islamic seminary

Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi on Saturday expressed confidence that the India-Afghanistan ties will grow stronger in future as he visited Darul Uloom Deoband in Saharanpur, one of the most influential Islamic seminaries in South Asia.

A raging controversy over the absence of women journalists from his presser in New Delhi a day earlier, which sparked sharp criticism from opposition parties and media bodies, followed the Afghan minister for the second day, but the seminary maintained that there were no restrictions from any side on women journalists covering its events on Saturday.

“I am thankful for such a grand welcome and the affection shown by the people here. I hope that India-Afghanistan ties advance further,” the Afghan leader told reporters as he was greeted by Mohtamim (vice-chancellor) of Darul Uloom Deoband Abul Qasim Nomani, president of Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind Maulana Arshad Madani and officials of the seminary, amid a floral shower.

Hundreds of students of the Islamic seminary and a large number of locals who had gathered at the Deoband campus jostled to shake hands with the visiting foreign dignitary, but were stopped by security personnel.

“We will be sending new diplomats, and I hope you people will visit Kabul as well. I have hopes for stronger ties in the future from the way I was received in Delhi. These visits may be frequent in the near future,” Muttaqi said.

Later, a public event organised by Deoband was cancelled due to “overcrowding” and “security reasons”.

Prior to his arrival from Delhi by road, intelligence and security agencies made extensive arrangements at Deoband. Officials from the Afghan embassy in Delhi arrived here on Friday for the high-level visit and met officials at Darul Uloom to review all arrangements.

Muttaqi, who landed in New Delhi on Thursday on a six-day trip, is the first senior Taliban minister to visit India after the group seized power four years back. India has not yet recognised the Taliban set up.

Opposition parties on Saturday termed the absence of female journalists from the press conference of Afghan Foreign Minister “unacceptable” and an “insult to women”, and said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “silence” in the face of such discrimination exposes the “emptiness” of his slogans on ‘Nari Shakti’.

Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra were among those who criticised it.

In a post on X, Congress general secretary in charge of communications, Jairam Ramesh, said, “(Tali)ban on female journalists in India. Shocking and unacceptable that the Govt of India agreed to it—and that too in New Delhi on the eve of the International Day of the Girl Child.”

The Editors Guild of India and the Indian Women Press Corps (IWPC) termed the act as highly discriminatory and said it cannot be justified on grounds of diplomatic privilege under the Vienna Convention.

Amid the row, the Darul Uloom Deoband asserted that there were no directives to keep women journalists away from covering the visit of the Afghan minister to the seminary.

“There were no restrictions from the Afghan foreign minister’s office about who would attend,” Deoband PRO Ashraf Usmani, also the media in-charge of Muttaqi’s programme, told PTI, and dismissed as “baseless” claims that women journalists were kept away.

The Islamic seminary’s clarification came regarding a public event of the Afghanistan minister that was scheduled to be held during his visit to the Darul Uloom Deoband in Saharanpur on Saturday but was called off at the last moment due to “overcrowding” and “security reasons”.

“There were no directives from anywhere on the attendance of women journalists. But the programme got called off at the last moment,” Usmani told PTI.

“Though the programme was called off due to overcrowding, the presence of a couple of women journalists for the Afghanistan minister’s event was enough to rebut reports of women journalists being made to keep away from the event,” he said, even naming news channels those journalists represented.

More people turned up for the event than were expected. So the Afghanistan minister’s speech didn’t happen as local administration cited security concerns as a reason for cancelling the public event, Usmani said.

“Various things were doing the rounds, from women journalists not being allowed to them being made to sit separately. All of this was baseless,” said Usmani, who is a Nazim (equivalent to departmental head) in Darul Uloom Deoband.

The president of Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind, Maulana Arshad Madani, told reporters that Jamiat’s relationship with Afghanistan is very old, and thousands of people from there had come here to study and later went back.

Asked about Friday’s press conference of the Afghan foreign minister, Madani told reporters, “It was a coincidence that yesterday’s press conference was attended only by men. The Afghan foreign minister had not said no to women coming to the press conference. It was wrong and propaganda.”

On the Afghan leader’s engagements at the Deoband, Usmani said: “Amir Khan Muttaqi participated in a scholarly session inside the seminary’s central library, where he symbolically read a lesson of Hadees (Prophetic tradition) under Maulana Nomani.”

He said that in order to teach Hadith, the person is given an” ‘Ijaazat-e-Hadees’ (permission) by an ustad’ (teacher)”.

Usmani said that Nomani in his personal capacity has bestowed the symbolic title of ‘Sanad-e-Hadees’ to Muttaqi as an extension of the “tree” (lineage), to which he belongs.

“Now, Muttaqi is also a part of this tree, and he can say that he was taught by Maulana AQ Nomani,” Usmani told PTI.

He categorically said that the title has not been given by Darul Uloom Deoband seminary, and is a personal title given by the ‘ustad’ (AQ Nomani).

“Now, Muttaqi will be known as a ‘shaagird’ (disciple) of AQ Nomani.” Usmani said.

The Afghan foreign minister’s visit to India assumed greater significance as it came at a time when both India and Afghanistan are having frosty relations with Pakistan over a range of issues, including cross-border terrorism.

Kabul will soon send its diplomats to India as part of “step-by-step” efforts to improve bilateral relations, Muttaqi had said on Friday, even as he asserted the Taliban will not allow anyone to use Afghan soil against other countries.

Muttaqi also pitched for India and Afghanistan joining hands to remove obstacles for the development of the Chabahar port in Iran in view of the Trump administration bringing it under sanctions.