Rahmatullah Nabil, a former Director of the Intelligence Agency, claims that despite good contacts with India, he was denied a visa.
Dushanbe: Despite its engagement with the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, India must maintain vigilance, according to former Afghanistan intelligence chief Rahmatullah Nabil, who warns that Pakistani terror groups targeting India, such as Jaish e Mohammad and Lashkar e Toiba, have relocated to Afghanistan with the Taliban’s assistance and now have access to more technology and territory.
Mr. Nabil claimed that even while it was in India’s “own interests” to engage the Taliban, New Delhi should maintain contact with past leaders even though they are no longer in office. Presidents Karzai and Ghani both appointed Mr. Nabil as the Director of the National Directorate of Security (NDS), where he worked closely with India from 2010 to 2015. However, Mr. Nabil famously resigned due to Mr. Ghani’s visit to Pakistan and the decision to establish hotlines between security chiefs.
Mr. Nabil further said that India denied him a visa during the Taliban takeover of Kabul in August 2021.
“We (former regime officials) have no complaints against other countries since we had no expectations, but we do have a complaint with our friends.” After August 15 (2021), even friends of India and those with diplomatic passports and visas were turned away, and visas were revoked,” he explained, explaining that he called his former interlocutors in New Delhi to request entry for himself, his mother, and family to India
The government had claimed at the time that it was suspending all visas issued owing to security concerns and had launched a special “Emergency e-visa” (Em-X-Misc e-visa) process in its place. Officials estimate that out of the tens of thousands of applications received last year, only 300 Afghans, largely Hindus and Sikhs, acquired e-visas. Mr. Nabil is one of several former officials and ministers who have stated the Taliban targeted them because of their ties to New Delhi.
“I contacted you shortly after Kabul fell.” When I inquired about travel, they revoked my visa. “I never tried to contact them after that, and they never contacted me,” he claimed. The MEA did not respond to inquiries for comment on Mr. Nabil’s claim’s authenticity. Officials stated that visas for Afghan people are determined by the Ministry of Home Affairs, which declined to comment. According to sources, a “few” Afghan officials were permitted to enter India temporarily, but more were turned away.
Any country, including India, does not recognize the Taliban government. However, since establishing a regime in Kabul, the Modi government has dispatched senior MEA officials to meet with Taliban commanders. In June of this year, I established a “technical mission” in Kabul to promote relief and development assistance for Afghans.
“We are no longer in a position to counsel India, and they know their own national interests better. However, they should not be under the impression that the Taliban has changed.” “Even if they had nice talks and were warmly welcomed by (Taliban interior minister Sirajuddin) Haqqani or other Taliban ministers, (they should realize) that anti-India sentiment runs deep in the Taliban,” Mr. Nabil added.
Mr. Nabil informed the Herat Security Dialogue about the number of terrorist organizations operating in Afghanistan, including Al Qaeda Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) and Islamic State Khorasan (IS-K). He claimed that thousands of “foreign fighters” were now based in regions of the nation like Kunar and Nuristan provinces and were in the “preparation phase” of carrying out attacks on nearby countries like India and Tajikistan. Mr. Nabil also claimed that they had access to the most recent technology.
“So their bases are there, the Taliban are protecting them, they have unrestricted access, and US forces’ surplus weaponry is available to them. In the interview, Mr. Nabil stated they have access to biometric information. “Pakistani (intelligence) no longer needs to directly back these organizations. He referred to the Haqqani group, whose leaders are still listed as terrorists by the UN Security Council and were suspected of involvement in attacks on Indian embassies in Afghanistan, saying, “The Haqqanis are executing the things that ISI (Pakistani intelligence) handlers were doing earlier. Pakistan has denied sponsoring terrorist organizations, and as a result of its efforts in stopping the financing of terrorism, it was recently removed from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) greylist.
