Taliban FM Receives Hero’s Welcome in Deoband as Pakistan-Afghanistan Border Tensions Rise in India
India’s engagement with Taliban FM Muttaqi marks a bold diplomatic reset — balancing realpolitik, gender questions, and regional power shifts.
In a striking diplomatic turn, Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi arrived in India for an eight-day visit, coinciding with New Delhi’s decision to reopen its embassy in Kabul. His stop at the Islamic seminary in Deoband drew widespread attention — and controversy — after women journalists were barred from attending a press briefing held within the Afghan Embassy premises.
In a detailed conversation with journalist Barkha Dutt, former diplomat Ambassador Veena Sikri, veteran journalist Padma Rao, and Lt. Gen. Rakesh Sharma (Retd.) shared their insights on the visit’s symbolism, challenges, and regional implications. Ambassador Sikri termed it a “strategic reset,” highlighting renewed cooperation on counterterrorism, humanitarian aid, and education. Rao, while welcoming India’s engagement with Afghanistan, condemned the exclusion of women reporters, calling it “a reflection of challenges ahead.”
Lt. Gen. Sharma described the visit as “a diplomatic success years in the making,” emphasizing the need for India to balance realpolitik with principle. As fighting erupts along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and protests rock Lahore, the timing of Muttaqi’s “hero’s welcome” in Deoband sends a clear signal of shifting regional equations.
Concluding the discussion, Barkha Dutt noted that India’s pragmatic outreach to the Taliban underscores a new phase in South Asian diplomacy — one that demands agility in a volatile geopolitical landscape, even as value clashes remain unavoidable.
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