New Delhi: Days after Afghanistan's embassy's closure became public and Afghan authorities decided to reopen it with Afghan diplomats from Mumbai and Hyderabad consulates leading the charge, the former Afghan ambassador in India Farid Mamundzay said the closeness between India and Taliban offered no space for him to operate.
Speaking exclusively to ETV Bharat from London, Amb Farid Mamundzay, who was appointed by the former PM Ashraf Ghani in 2021, said, "The embassy was operationally closed, with no provision of regular consulate services and other amenities. However, on an emergency basis, we did provide some services. Additionally, my colleagues temporarily closed the mission to protest against the conduct of the Indian government, with the hope that situation will change for good, and they would be granted visas. Unfortunately, neither of these expectations materialised, leading us to the decision to permanently shut down the Republic mission."
His response came in to a question when asked why was the Afghan embassy closed down on Friday. When being asked to comment on the last communication that he had with the New Delhi and any response from EAM Dr Jaishankar and NSA Ajit Doval, Amb Farid said Infian authorities showed reluctance to give time to our diplomats for meetings or respond to any of our communications. "I wrote to both (EAM Dr Jaishankar and NSA Ajit Doval) of them. Intact, I wrote twice to EAM but there was no response. No one was giving any time for meeting," he added.
It is pertinent to note here that a couple of months back it was said that the Taliban in April had appointed Qadir Shah, who had been working as a trade councillor at the Afghan embassy since 2020, to head the mission. But this was later refuted by the officials and was stalled by other diplomats at the mission. This whole chapter back then portrayed the internal conflict within the Embassy.
When being asked about the status of Qadir Shah on whether he is in India, the sources in MEA said, "The last time we had a conversation with Qadir Shah, back then he was in Turkey. We don't know where he is now."
To this, Amb Farid said, "He is in Delhi. IbrahimKhil (Hyderabad Consul) will run the mission for few weeks and then hand it over to Qadir Shah. India and Taliban are closer than ever and this left us with no space to operate."
The sudden closure of Afghan embassy followed by its reopening from Monday has attracted a lot of attention in the diplomatic circles with questions on relations between India and Taliban still hanging. While, New Delhi as of now has refuted all the claims on its relations with the Taliban. Now, all eyes will be on the Afghan embassy and it's functioning.
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