The Wire Staff 
New Delhi: Six months after the Afghan consul general in Mumbai resigned following charges of alleged gold smuggling, the vacancy has been filled with apparent support from Kabul – the first diplomatic posting in India since the Taliban’s 2021 takeover of Afghanistan.
Late on Monday (November 13) night, Taliban deputy foreign minister Sher Abbas Stanikzai’s X account posted a photo of an individual with the caption, “Acting Consul of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan in Mumbai, India, esteemed Dr Hafiz Ikramuddin Kamil”.
There was no official statement from the Indian side, but sources confirmed the development, adding however that it was not tantamount to recognition of the Taliban government.
In November 2022, the operation of the Afghan embassy in New Delhi was taken over by Sayed Mohammad Ibrahimkhil and Zakia Wardak, who were the Afghan consul generals of Hyderabad and Mumbai.
This was the culmination of the process of the exodus of earlier Islamic Republic-appointed diplomats from the Afghan diplomatic missions in India after the Taliban’s August 2021 conquest of Afghanistan.
While Wardak and Ibrahimkhil had also been appointed by the former Republic government, they participated in meetings chaired by the Taliban’s foreign minister. In contrast, most other India-based Afghan diplomats refused to engage with the new regime in Kabul.
Despite the leadership change, Afghan diplomatic missions in India continue to fly the Republic’s tricolour flag rather than the Taliban’s, due to India’s policy of non-recognition of the Taliban government.
However, in May 2024, Wardak resigned and left India the same day it emerged that officials from the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence had discovered her to be carrying 25 kilograms of undeclared gold, valued at Rs 18.6 crore, after a search conducted upon her arrival at the Mumbai airport aboard a flight from Dubai.
She could not be arrested due to her diplomatic immunity.
Following Wardak’s resignation, all the three diplomatic missions were operated by Ibrahimkhil.
Indian official sources on Tuesday asserted that the situation was not tenable.
“Over the past three years, Afghan diplomats manning the Afghan embassy and consulates in India have sought refuge or asylum in different Western countries and have left India. A lone former diplomat who has continued to stay in India has somehow kept the Afghan mission and consulates running,” they said.
Noting that more staff was required to the cater to the large Afghan community based in India, the sources said in carefully worded phrases: “A young Afghan student, who the MEA [Ministry of External Affairs] is familiar with, and who has studied in India for seven years while completing his doctorate from South Asia University on an MEA scholarship, has agreed to function as a diplomat in the Afghan consulate”.
Kamil received both his MPhil and LLM degrees from the Delhi-based South Asian University. In August this year, he successfully defended his doctorate on international investment law.
Just like the rest of the international community, India does not officially recognise the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, but has increased its contacts with them at several levels.
Indian sources asserted that “as far as his affiliation or status is concerned, for us, he is an Afghan national working for Afghans in India”.
“As regards the issue of recognition [of the Taliban government], there is a set process for [the] recognition of any government and India will continue to work with the international community on this issue,” they added.
Earlier on Monday, the Taliban foreign ministry’s deputy spokesperson, Hafiz Zia Ahmad, tweeted that the “Consulate General of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan” has begun distributing passports to Afghan nationals in compliance with a 2023 directive from the Taliban Supreme Leader.
“And to find a solution to the problems, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has directed India to the Consulate General of Afghanistan in Mumbai to start the process of distributing passports in order to solve the needs of Afghan refugees, students and businessmen,” added the deputy spokesperson.