New Delhi: Afghan Consul Generals in India Friday rejected Ambassador Farid Mamundzay’s earlier statement announcing the closure of the embassy in Delhi due to “lack of diplomatic support from the host country”. The incongruence between the two statements comes months after a power struggle emerged in the embassy in Delhi between its ambassador and the Taliban regime.
“The Indian Government will not close the Embassy of Afghanistan in New Delhi and both the Consulates will remain functional…[Afghan consulates] unequivocally disavow and seek to clarify the assertions made by Ambassador Mr. Farid Mamundzai. We underscore that such actions fall outside the purview of the Ambassador, in accordance with Afghan laws and the provisions of the Vienna Convention (sic),” they said in a statement Friday.
This comes after Afghan Consul General Zakia Wardak (Mumbai) and Acting-Consul General Syed Mohammad Ibrahimkhail held extensive meetings with officials from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) earlier this week.
ThePrint reached out to Mamundzay over WhatsApp for a response to the remarks against him. The MEA spokesperson was also contacted via WhatsApp for clarity on whether India still recognised Mamundzay as the Afghan ambassador.
This report will be updated if and when responses are received.
On 1 October, the Afghan embassy had announced it would cease operations due to the lack of support from the host government, among other reasons. The announcement came days after ThePrint reported that the embassy wrote to the MEA about its intent to close down, shortly after local staff were sacked.
ThePrint further reported that Afghan consulates in Mumbai and Hyderabad intend to remain open.
On Thursday, the MEA spokesperson confirmed that talks involved what “future action” to take, but also called the statement from the ambassador “factually incorrect” and “inaccurate”.
Mamundzay’s decision was taken during his absence from India and without “consultation” with the missions in Mumbai and Hyderabad, the statement from the consul generals said Friday.
His decisions “appear to be motivated by personal and internal matters within the embassy, which contravene established diplomatic protocols and practices”, the two diplomats added.
Ambassador Farid Mamundzay has been in the UK for the past three months.
A crisis broke out in the Afghan embassy in April when Mamundzay’s trade counsellor Qadir Shah wrote to the MEA claiming to have been appointed as charge d’affaires (CDA) by the Taliban government. Suhail Shaheen, head of the Taliban’s political office in Doha, reportedly called the “appointment” a “rational” decision.
This occurred when the ambassador was visiting his family in London.
Mamundzay, Wardak, and Ibrahimkhail were all appointed by the previous democratic government in Afghanistan. They hoist the flag of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, not the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan under the Taliban.
India has not officially recognised the Taliban regime, which took control of Afghanistan in 2021. Instead, New Delhi has maintained a ‘technical team’ in Kabul since June 2022.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
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