Taliban appoints envoy in India

The Taliban regime has appointed Ikramuddin Kamil, a young Afghan student in India, as Acting Consul at Afghanistan's Consulate in Mumbai. 

Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, the Taliban's deputy foreign minister for political affairs, announced Mr Kamil's appointment on X on Tuesday.

This is the first appointment by the Taliban - which New Delhi does not recognise - in India since it took power in Afghanistan in 2021.

India withdrew its diplomats from Kabul and other cities after the takeover and diplomats appointed by the previous Ashraf Ghani government in Afghanistan left India and took asylum in other countries. 

A lone former diplomat has stayed in India and kept the Afghanistan mission and consulates running.
Mr Kamil's appointment comes days after a delegation led by JP Singh, joint secretary of the Pakistan-Afghanistan-Iran division of the external affairs ministry visited Afghanistan and held talks with Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob, the acting defence minister of the Taliban, in Kabul.