Remaining Afghanistan Embassy staffers pro-Taliban: Former envoy Farid Mamundzay

New Delhi, November 26

Farid Mamundzay, who was the Afghan Ambassador to India till the embassy shut down, accused “some’’ in India of serving the Taliban’s interests.

Mamundzay also said the staffers who remain at the embassy are Taliban. “Setting the record straight: As of November 23, there’s no Afghan diplomat in India. Those aligned with the Taliban serve Kabul’s interests and, unfortunately, some in India,’’ he posted on X while reacting to reports that some pro-Taliban diplomats have resolved to keep the mission functional.

Another post by former Afghan diplomats aligned to the same Ashraf Ghani faction as Mamundzay said there were “efforts to dilute truth and undermine former diplomats for (the) alleged crisis by those who work for and with Taliban’’.

They said Afghans like Zakia and Ibrahimkhail, who want the embassy to function, were “moonlighting’’ at Taliban meetings, “taking cues from a group with Indian blood on their hands’’. They also posted photos showing both at meetings where Taliban Foreign Minister Maulvi Amir Khan Muttaqi was also present.

However, Muttaqi is not a pariah for a large section of the international community, including Russia, China and several European and Arab countries.  

On November 23, the Afghan embassy said it was shutting down, “owing to persistent challenges from the Indian government.’’ The embassy had announced a shutdown earlier on September 30 but had kept operations going “in the hope that the Indian government stance will favourably change to let the mission operate normally.’’

The thrust in the latest missive from Ghani-era appointed diplomats was against “by those who work with and for Taliban’’. They criticised the “remaining so-called diplomats’’ as ones who could “barely write anything’’.