Afghanistan’s embassy in India refuses to pledge allegiance to Taliban’s government in Kabul

Not just India, diplomats posted in the embassies of Afghanistan in many capitals around the world appeared reluctant of the new government

The Embassy of Afghanistan in New Delhi has refused to pledge its allegiance to the government the Taliban announced in Kabul on Tuesday.

Hours after the Taliban announced its government in Kabul, the Embassy of Afghanistan in the capital of India stated that it did not represent the new regime. The embassy will continue to represent the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in India and not the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan established by the Taliban, said Abdulhaq Azad, a spokesperson of the war-torn country’s diplomatic mission of New Delhi.

“The Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in New Delhi will continue to provide services to the citizens of Afghanistan in India,” Azad told the DH in New Delhi.

Not just India, diplomats posted in the embassies of Afghanistan in many capitals around the world appear to be reluctant to pledge allegiance to the Taliban regime in Kabul.

The acting Prime Minister of the Taliban’s government in Afghanistan, Mullah Hasan Akhund, and the acting Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani are among the ones who are under UN sanctions.

Read | Taliban supreme leader tells new govt to uphold sharia law in first message since takeover

Ashraf Haidari, Afghanistan’s ambassador to Sri Lanka, slammed the new government announced by the Taliban in Kabul on Tuesday. He pointed out in a tweet from Colombo that the new government was led by people under the United Nations sanctions, driven by the clerics, included no women and represented only one ethnic community out of 55 in Afghanistan.

He also underlined that the new government announced by the Taliban had no religious and sectarian diversity and was hand-picked by a foreign power. He, however, did not directly refer to Pakistan, which had allegedly created the Taliban in 1990s, helped it survive the US military offensive over the past 20 years and facilitated its resurgence over the past few years – in order to gain a “strategic depth” in Afghanistan and edge against India.

Said T Jawad, Kabul’s envoy to Moscow, retweeted a video of protests by Afghans in front of the Embassy of Pakistan in the capital of his country. Tahir Qadiry, Afghanistan’s ambassador to Poland, posted on Twitter a picture of a militant brandishing his gun to stop men and women protesting against the Taliban in Kabul.

Shukria Barakzai, Kabul’s envoy to Oslo, also retweeted pictures and videos of protests against the Taliban.

The Taliban took over Kabul on August 15 after occupying most of the provincial capitals across Afghanistan in a swift military blitz, taking advantage of the withdrawal of troops by the United States and its NATO allies. Soon after the Islamist militants marched into Kabul, President Ashraf Ghani fled the capital city, marking the collapse of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.

Read | Haibatullah Akhundzada: Shadowy Taliban supreme leader whose son was suicide bomber

Ghani’s Vice President Amrullah Saleh, however, on August 18 declared himself from Panjshir Province as the caretaker President, claiming continuation of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, which had come into existence with the adoption of the new Constitution in 2004.

The Taliban on August 19 last declared the restoration of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, which had ceased to exist after the US military offensive in the wake of the 9/11 attacks had overthrown Mullah Omar’s Government in Kabul in 2001. The militants also raised from the presidential palace in Kabul the Emirate’s white flag with Islamic oath Shahada written on it in black.

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