By Arpan Rai

Copyright independent

India is set to host the Taliban’s acting foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi next week, people aware of the development said on Thursday.

The UN-sanctioned Taliban leader was due to make his first trip to India in August but failed to secure a waiver on his existing travel ban by the United Nations Security Council last month.

He was sanctioned by the UNSC in 2001 over the acts and activities of the Taliban in Afghanistan during the hardline Islamist group’s previous rule in the 1990s.

However, the UN security council said its committee approved an exemption to his travel ban, allowing him to visit India between 9 October to 16 October.

“On 30 September 2025, the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 1988 (2011) approved an exemption to the travel ban for Amir Khan Motaqi to visit New Delhi, India, from 9 to 16 October 2025,” a statement by the UN said.

The Independent has learnt New Delhi is set to host the Taliban leader in the capital next week on 10 October where he will meet Indian external affairs minister S Jaishankar for a high-level meeting.

This marks the first ever visit by a Taliban leader to India after the hardline Islamist group captured power in Afghanistan in August 2021, in a significant boost to the former militia group’s diplomatic ambitions.

For sanctioned people like Muttaqi, a waiver has to be secured for their travel ban to visit foreign countries.

The 1988 sanctions committee – a subsidiary body of the Security Council to oversee the implementation of sanctions – is currently led by Pakistan. It is overseeing the travel bans imposed on the Taliban leaders along with assets freeze and an arms embargo.

The visit from Muttaqi will bump India into a brief list of nations that have hosted the sanctioned Taliban leader – joining the ranks of China and Russia who have engaged with the fundamentalist group despite censure.

Officials on the Indian side had failed to secure a waiver last month for Muttaqi’s visit, leading to the cancellation of arrangements from the Taliban side.

According to officials in New Delhi, a waiver for Muttaqi was sought from the UNSC but it was not given clearance, in a move reportedly blocked by Pakistan.

The visit to India by a senior Taliban official is seen as problematic as it will give legitimacy to the group that has banned almost half of its population of girls and women from schools, colleges, and workplaces on top of curtailing their basic human rights.

On Monday, the Taliban suspended internet services across Afghanistan, cutting off millions of people from the outside world.

Afghan media reported that the restriction was in line with the Taliban leadership’s decree from earlier this month to tackle online “immorality”.

The ban blocked mobile and broadband internet services, disrupted satellite television, and even affected flight operations. Flightradar24 showed that at least five flights scheduled to arrive at or depart from Kabul airport on Tuesday were cancelled. The services were later restored after the 48-hour blackout.

Phone services of the largest providers, Roshan and Etisalat, both foreign-owned, were restored late afternoon on Wednesday, Reuters quoted residents in Kabul as saying.

India has gradually ramped up its cautious yet increasingly diplomatic approach in engaging with the Taliban by meeting with the group’s senior officials in Qatar and also in Kabul.