New Delhi: Over two and a half years after the Taliban took over Afghanistan, the regime in Kabul has finally cracked the whip and directed a change in leadership in the Afghan embassy in New Delhi.
However, Farid Mamundzay, who had been appointed the Afghan ambassador by the previous republic and continued in the post till now, in a Facebook post on Sunday evening that all recent “media rumours” are “baseless and rejected”.
An inkling of turmoil in the Afghan embassy first began with an article in a small Afghan news agency, Bokhdi, on Saturday.
Diplomatic sources confirmed to The Wire that directions have been issued from the Kabul foreign ministry to remove Mamundzay and replace him with another diplomat already posted in the embassy as the acting chief d’Affaires.
A day after the report in the Bokdhi news agency, Tolo News posted a tweet with the screenshot of an unsigned letter from “Afghans refugees based in India”. The letter names three diplomats, including the ambassador, and accuses them of “corruption” related to some rent agreement with an Indian company.
“Afghans based in India” in a letter to the Islamic Emirate Ministry of Foreign Affairs accused several officials at the Afghan embassy in India of “corruption,” related to a land lease agreement with an Indian company.
The officials in the Afghan embassy in Delhi have yet to… pic.twitter.com/KnPPMEO25s— TOLOnews (@TOLOnews) May 14, 2023
Two hours later, Mamundzay posted a statement on his Facebook page, which was also shared on the official Facebook page of the Afghan embassy.
“Although the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in India has no obligation to respond to claims from unknown addresses, it assures all fellow countrymen that it has handled all its past and present affairs with full transparency to avoid the concern of its citizens,” the statement said, as per a machine translation.
It then goes on to state that the reports were “baseless and rejected”. The statement noted that all embassy officials conduct work with “sincerity and commitment to the dignity and pride of their country and consider the will of their nation the criterion of past and present affairs”.
The original article in Bokhdi news agency was headlined that India has “handed” over the embassy to the Taliban. However, it is learnt that the Indian host has no role in the current turmoil, since the directions have only been from Kabul to the embassy.
The US-based Afghan media outlet Amu Television published a copy of a letter late from the Afghan foreign ministry’s directorate of human resources to the head of the Afghan embassy in New Delhi. It stated that Mohammad Qadir Shah will “take charge of the affairs of the Afghan embassy in New Delhi” until further orders.
According to the Amu report published late on Sunday night, India time, the staff of the embassy have not yet allowed Qadir Shah, who has been posted at the mission before the collapse of the republic, to take control of the embassy. The Wire has made multiple attempts to contact Mamundzay and Qadir Shah, but they have not yet responded.
The report stated that Qadir Shah had sent the letter from Kabul to the Ministry of External Affairs, but did not get any response.
As mentioned earlier, India would not be getting involved in the matter or respond to the letter since the Taliban government is not recognised, it is understood.
Since India like the rest of the international community has not recognised the Taliban, Mamundzay, despite being appointed by President Ashraf Ghani, had continued to operate the embassy even after the collapse of the Islamic Republic in August 2020. As the Afghan representative, he had been present at the Indian government’s flagging off of convoys of Indian wheat as humanitarian aid for Afghanistan last year.
After the Taliban took over Kabul and all the ministries, the foreign ministry had been sending routine directions and orders, but they were usually not implemented by the Afghan embassy as they considered themselves to be still working under the previous government.
The UN conference on Afghanistan earlier this month had refused to approve any move towards recognition of the Taliban government. Therefore, it remains unrecognised by any government, but it has been able to “wrest control” of diplomatic missions by appointing its officials at embassies in Russia, Pakistan, China, Iran, Doha and several central Asian nations.
Note: This article has been updated with additional details since publication late on Sunday, May 14.
