He was mobbed at the seminary. The rockstar welcome he received should worry Delhi.
In a post on X on October 20, Amrullah Saleh, vice president of Afghanistan from February 2020 to August 2021, wished “all Indians and Hindus across the globe” a happy Diwali, and then cautioned India about the Deoband madrassa. “Please be mindful of the Deoband madrasa in the meantime,” he wrote. A former intelligence chief, Saleh is a staunch opponent of the Afghan Taliban and of Pakistan.
Saleh’s post came amid celebrations of the festival of Diwali in India. More importantly, it came days after Amir Khan Muttaqi, the interim foreign minister of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, visited the Darul Uloom Deoband seminary in Saharanpur in northern India. His week-long visit to India was groundbreaking; Muttaqi is the highest Taliban official to visit the country. The two sides announced the reopening of their embassies in each other’s capitals.
An important item on Muttaqi’s itinerary was the Deoband seminary, where he was accorded a grand welcome. A veritable sea of men, including madrassa officials, students, and locals, descended on the seminary to catch a glimpse of the Taliban leader.
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