Is India planning to train Afghan Taliban in IMA, OTA and NDA?

With an official Indian government delegation’s visit to Kabul on June 3, Taliban soldiers trained in India may no longer be the taboo it was earlier. So are there moves afoot to induct them into Indian military institutions, writes Sanjib Kr Baruah.

New Delhi: In what may be a continuance of the long legacy of officers of the Afghan National Army (ANA) being trained in military warfare, tactics and academics in Indian military institutions, is the way being paved for soldiers of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) or the Taliban regime to be trained in India?

Till the Taliban takeover in 2021, every year scores of ANA officers—both men and women—were trained in Indian military institutions like the Indian Military Academy (IMA), Officers Training Academy (OTA) or the National Defence Academy (NDA), and some even in specialised training modules at the Artillery School (Devlali), Mechanised Infantry Regimental Centre (Ahmednagar), and the Infantry School (Mhow).

Less than a year ago when the Taliban militia overran Kabul after the last of the US soldiers left the beleaguered country, one would have thought it to be in the realm of impossibility but certain developments have prompted the question even though queries to the Indian establishment including the Indian Army went unanswered.

Let us consider it stepwise. On May 31, Mullah Yaqoob, defence minister of IEA and son of the former Taliban founder Mullah Omar, in an interview with an Indian TV channel, indicated his willingness to get IEA soldiers trained in military academies in India. Omar said in response to a query: “Yes, we don’t see any issue with it. Afghan-India relations get strengthened and set the ground for this. There will be no issues with it.”

Last year’s developments resulted in the about 40 Afghan gentlemen cadets in the IMA being left out in the lurch as the ANA disbanded.

With reports that the Taliban were hunting out ANA personnel, the India-trained cadets refused to return and instead with the Indian government’s help sought alternatives including receiving vocational training and seeking asylum in India and other countries including the US.

Similarly, the fate is uncertain also for the 43 Afghan cadets who are set to pass out from the IMA on Saturday (June 11) this year. Long considered “pariah” for their radical religious views including the status of women in society, the Taliban had never had a cosy relationship with India.

On December 24, 1999, a hijacked Indian Airlines Flight 814 was diverted to Kandahar in Afghanistan where the Taliban was in power in Kabul giving credence to the view that the Taliban supported the hijackers. Three top terrorists—Maulana Masood, Omar Sheikh and Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar—were released in exchange.

After Yaqoob’s statement, an Indian Foreign Ministry delegation led by JP Singh, joint secretary in the Indian Foreign Ministry who is mandated to deal with issues relating to Afghanistan, landed in Kabul.

On June 3, Singh met Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi, Foreign Minister of the IEA and then deputy Foreign Minister Alhaj Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai, who as a young lieutenant of the ANA, passed out from the IMA in 1982-83 as part of the 71st batch.

Post the meetings with IEA ministers, Singh termed the India-Afghanistan relations as “historic” even as he expressed India’s keenness to help with infrastructural and small projects, capacity building, educational scholarships and humanitarian aid in Afghanistan.

On its part, the IEA termed the meeting “a good beginning in ties between the two countries” even as he stressed the resumption of projects by India, their diplomatic presence in Afghanistan and the provision of consular services to Afghans.

And now reports have now emanated that New Delhi is keen to populate the Indian embassy in Kabul with a limited number of diplomatic officials—bereft of the seniors—just to be able to handle the consular matters as well as facilitate the humanitarian aid that India is sending to Afghanistan.

Any Afghan national keen to enter India now would need a visa issued by the Indian embassy in Kabul. That would not be possible till the time the Indian embassy begins its consular activities which include the issuance of visas. Notably, after the Taliban takeover in Kabul, while the relationship of the IEA government with Pakistan took a nosedive, there has been considerable warming up of the ties between New Delhi and the IEA.

That brings us to the moot question: are Taliban military personnel being readied for military training in India?