Mufti Noor Ahmad Noor is a senior official in the Taliban’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Photo: Special Arrangement
Nearly five years after the Taliban wrested control of Kabul, the first Taliban-appointed diplomat arrived in India to take charge of the Afghanistan Embassy in Delhi, sources confirmed to The Hindu.
Mufti Noor Ahmad Noor, a senior official in the Taliban’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has arrived in Delhi and is expected to take over as the Charge d’Affaires at the Embassy, sources said. This had been agreed between India and the Afghan regime after the visit of Taliban Acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Mottaqi to Delhi in October 2025, where he was hosted by External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar.
Mr. Noor is a senior Taliban member who had accompanied Mr. Mottaqi during his week-long official visit to India, and visited the Darul Uloom madrassa in Deoband with him.
In late December 2025, Mr. Noor also visited Dhaka and is believed to have met with a number of Islamist leaders there in a trip reported by Bangladeshi media as significant as it came shortly before Bangladesh elections on February 12.
Earlier Taliban appointee rejected
Mr. Noor, the Director General of the First Political Division of the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) based in Kabul, has not yet handed over formal letters of appointment, and his appointment has not been announced by the MFA thus far, officials confirmed.
A previous attempt by the Taliban to appoint a Charge d’Affaires in Delhi was foiled in April 2023 after the appointee was rejected by staffers at the embassy and blocked from entering the premises.
Subsequently, the Taliban was successful in appointing its nominee to the Consulate in Mumbai, Ikramuddin Kamil. However, the Consular-General from Hyderabad, Mohammad Ebrahimkhil, who had originally been sent by the earlier Ghani government, took over as the Charge D’Affaires in Delhi.
Sources in Hyderabad would not confirm whether Mr. Ebrahimkhil would now return to Hyderabad, where the Consulate has also been handed over to another Taliban appointee, Habibur Rahman Aftab.
Local officials there told The Hindu they had not been informed of any personnel changes in the Consulate. Both Consuls from Mumbai and Hyderabad are presently in Delhi for Mr. Noor’s arrival.
Improving ties
India, along with most other countries, does not recognise the Taliban as the legitimate government in Afghanistan, as it used force to oust the democratically elected Republic government led by former President Ashraf Ghani in August 2021.
However, India has improved ties with the Taliban after re-establishing a technical mission in Kabul in 2022.
On October 21 last year, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) announced it would upgrade the mission to “Embassy status”, joining a number of countries including China, Russia, Pakistan and others in the Gulf region and Central Asia, to allow the Taliban to post diplomats in their countries.
This had raised questions over the fate of employees at the Embassy in Delhi who had worked under the previous regime, and who could be targeted or asked to return to Afghanistan where they worry for the future of their families.
For the moment, officials said that both the employees and the red, green and black tricolour flag of the previous regime would remain at the Embassy on Delhi’s Shantipath. However, this could change once the Taliban appointee takes control of the Embassy, as he is expected to do next week.
Announcing the decision to upgrade its embassy in Kabul on October 21, 2025 and appoint diplomats there, the MEA said in a statement that the decision “underscores India’s resolve to deepen its bilateral engagement with the Afghan side in all spheres of mutual interest”. Mr. Mottaqi also confirmed that the Taliban administration would appoint its diplomats to Delhi in a reciprocal move.
(with inputs from Ravikanth Reddy in Hyderabad)
Published – January 09, 2026 09:29 pm IST
