India very important, want to maintain good ties: Taliban leader

By Team Newsable | First Published Aug 30, 2021, 10:08 AM IST

This is the first time a member from Taliban’s top hierarchy has spoken on the issue since the takeover of Kabul.

In what is being seen as a signal to India, a member of the Taliban leadership Sher Mohammed Abbas Stanekzai in Qatar has said that India is “very important for this subcontinent” and want to continue Afghanistan’s political, economic and cultural ties with India.

This is the first time a member from the Taliban's top hierarchy has spoken on the issue since the takeover of Kabul.

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In a video address in Pashto, “We attach great importance to our trade, economic and political relations with India and want to maintain that relation,” Stanekzai was quoted as saying by PTI.

“We also need to keep the air trade open,” he was quoted as saying by Pakistani media outlet Independent Urdu.

The Taliban leader was referring to the air corridor between India and Afghanistan that was established to boost trade between the two countries in view of Pakistan's denial to allow transit access, PTI reported.

Also read: Taliban takeover disrupts India's mega Mumbai-Chabahar plan

He also extensively spoke about the end of the war in Afghanistan and the Taliban’s plans for forming an Islamic administration based on Shariah.

Given the significance that Pakistan holds the controls to the Taliban, and Islamabad and Rawalpindi always seen India’s ties with Afghanistan as a negative influence, it is also the first categorical statement directed at India by a senior leader of the Taliban since they captured power in Kabul on August 15.

According to a report on The Indian Express, Stanekzai, incidentally, was at the Indian Military Academy in Dehradun in the 1980s as part of training for Afghan army cadets. In 1996, he had made a similar overture to India after the Taliban’s first takeover of Kabul when he was Deputy Foreign Minister of a caretaker regime.

This statement comes at a time when India has evacuated all its diplomatic staff from Afghanistan after the Taliban military blitz gained control over Kabul.

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