New Delhi: ‘Bhagat’ would be a very familiar name to Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai Padshah Khan, or simply Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai, top Taliban negotiator. Because ‘Bhagat’ was the battalion he belonged to during his one-and-a-half year long pre-commission training at the Indian Military Academy (IMA) at Dehradun where he honed his military skills.
Considered to be among the most powerful of Taliban leaders, the globe-trotting top Taliban leader, 58 years old now, was part of the 71st course of the IMA in around 1982-83. In other words, some of his IMA batchmates will definitely be serving as lieutenant generals in the Indian Army.
Known to be fond of talking about his ‘India days’, the powerful Taliban leader however has no love lost for India. In an interview with a Pakistani media outlet last year, the chief negotiator took a very dim view of India’s role in Afghanistan when he accused India of supporting traitors.
But it was at IMA that Stanekzai learnt the basics of combat, tactics, strategy, weapons handling, physical and mental grounding, etc which form the core of the curriculum for the Gentleman Cadets (GCs).
After joining the Afghan National Army as a lieutenant after completing his pre-commission training at IMA, Stanekzai in a few years had a change of heart that led him to leaving the Afghan army to join the Mujaheedin ranks to fight the Soviet Army.
The Russians were deployed in Afghanistan ever since the 1979 invasion till their withdrawal in 1989.
Stanekzai rose fast in the Taliban hierarchy because of his educational background, fluency in English and general articulateness—an important attribute in the backdrop of the fact that most of the Taliban leadership do not have formal education.
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In 1996, when the Taliban seized power in Kabul, Stanekzai was appointed as the deputy foreign minister and deputy health minister in the government.
But when the US forces landed in Afghanistan in 2001 in the aftermath of the 9/11 bombings and the Taliban was forced to flee, he landed in Doha in Qatar in January 2012 where he led the political and foreign office.
In Doha since then, Stanekzai has been travelling to various countries across the world despite the UN naming him in 2001 as “an individual associated with the Taliban”. He has been part of recent negotiations with important leaders from the Ghani-led Afghan government to the US to Russia and China.
Only in September 2020 was he made deputy to the Taliban-appointed Mullah Abdul Hakim to negotiate with the Afghan government.
