This represents the first official appointment by the Taliban regime in India, with no formal response from the Indian government yet on the matter.
Ikramuddin Kamil (@AKStanikzai on X)
The Taliban have appointed Ikramuddin Kamil as the acting consul in Mumbai, according to a report from a Taliban-run media outlet on Monday. This marks the first such appointment in India by the Taliban regime in Kabul.
Kamil, who goes by the handle "X / AKStanikzai," is already in Mumbai and will oversee consular services, as confirmed by the Taliban’s foreign ministry. No official statement has been issued by the Indian government regarding the development. This follows a meeting in Kabul last week between an Indian delegation and the Taliban’s acting defense minister, Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob.
The Bakhtar News Agency (BNA), which is controlled by the Taliban, reported that Kamil’s appointment as the “acting consul of the Islamic Emirate in Mumbai” was confirmed by sources within the Taliban’s foreign ministry. The report noted that Kamil is currently fulfilling his duties as a diplomat in Mumbai.
Kamil holds a PhD in international law and has previously served as the deputy director of the department for security cooperation and border affairs in the Taliban’s foreign ministry.
Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, the Taliban’s deputy foreign minister for political affairs, also shared news of Kamil’s appointment via X on Monday.
Sources familiar with the situation, speaking anonymously, revealed that Kamil had received a scholarship from the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) to study at the South Asian University (SAU) in New Delhi, a university established by members of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). Kamil has lived in India for several years, and his appointment is believed to have been prompted by the shortage of diplomatic staff in India following the departure of many Afghan diplomats after the fall of the Ashraf Ghani government.
Since former Afghan ambassador Farid Mamundzay left India in 2023, other diplomats from the previous government closed the embassy in New Delhi in November 2022 due to a lack of support from the Indian government. Zakia Wardak, the former consul in Mumbai, took over the embassy's operations but resigned in May 2024 after being detained at Mumbai airport in connection with an alleged gold smuggling attempt.
Kamil is a Pashtun from Nangarhar province in eastern Afghanistan and has an academic background in law, having studied at the Islamic University Islamabad before obtaining his MPhil and PhD degrees from South Asian University.
India, like many other countries, does not officially recognize the Taliban regime that took power in Afghanistan following the collapse of the Ghani government in August 2021. After initially closing its embassy in Kabul, India re-established a diplomatic presence by sending a "technical team" to Afghanistan in June 2022.
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