The Afghanistan embassy in India suspended operations citing an inability to serve the country’s interests and a shortage of staff and resources. India will take control of the embassy in a caretaker capacity, the statement by the embassy said. The announcement comes two years after the elected government in Afghanistan was overthrown by the Taliban.
While India does not recognise the Taliban government, it had allowed the Afghan embassy to continue operations under the ambassador and mission staff appointed by former president Ashraf Ghani, who fled Kabul in 2021.
Earlier this year, the embassy was rocked by a power struggle in the wake of reports of the Taliban appointing a charge d’affaires to head the mission, replacing Mamundzay. Following the episode, the embassy came out with a statement that there was no change in its leadership.
The tussle for power had erupted after Qadir Shah, who was working as a trade councillor at the embassy since 2020, wrote to the MEA in late April claiming that he was appointed as the charge d’affaires at the embassy by the Taliban.
But the embassy’s closure statement said it “categorically refutes any baseless claims regarding internal strife” among embassy staff, and denied any diplomats were “using the crisis to seek asylum in a third country”.
Here are the reasons listed by the Afghanistan embassy was closing its operations in India: