New Delhi: In Endgame which turbulent to the Afghan crisis, Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai – Sheru to the 1982 class at the Indian Military Academy Dehradun – has become like the face of an Indian Taliban outreach because it is a radical regime’s point for political transition.
Back in the 1970s, when the older generation of Afghanistan experienced the last stretch of peace, Stanekzai and two other people who would go to become central figures in the history of the problematic country – President of Ashraf Ghani and Afghan Peace Messenger Zalmay Khalilzad – is all Busy find themselves while studying scholarships abroad.
Stankekzai, now the chairman of the negotiator for the Taliban, spent these years in military fatigue at the foot of the Himalayar, training in the prestigious Military School of India.
On the break, the collection of young Afghanistan will find themselves in Kashmir’s hills, or in the set of Bollywood films hoping photos with stars.
Like the other two, his journey from becoming an IMA cadet to deputy head of the Taliban political office captured the long Afghan conflict arc.
At that time, the ideological lines at home were higher – on the one hand, the communist approach looked at the Soviet Union; On the other hand, a wave of Muslim consultant conservatism.
Some Stanekzai classmates in India said he was mostly dodge from politics.
But they remember that he bent towards a personal conservatism, including avoiding naughty meat.
“He is the most disciplined batch, very focused and organized,” Remember Abdul Razique Samadi, who is Senior Stanekzai at IMA.
“Even if he smokes, he will do it from our attention.” There are few who suggest that Stanekzai will one day be a maid for one of Taliban’s main guerrilla commander, Abdul Rab Rasoul Sayyaf.
His role is as a liaison with Pakistani military intelligence – the relationship that, according to those who know him, has formed his political career.
While Stanekzai was ideologically located with anti-Soviet mujahedeen, as Urbanite he was not socially fit, one friend who knew him well in the 1980s said.
In Quetta, Pakistan, where their group operates, he often goes to restaurants with his wife, the subject of gossip among warriors.
The friend considering Stanekzai burdens up fellow mujahididers for ideas that have been outdated about keeping women hidden at home.
When the Taliban supported by Pakistan took over Kabul, swept the anarchist Civil War who attended the Soviet withdrawal, Stanekzai became the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs.
His English skills again made him a focal point for international media and diplomats, a voice for the government that prohibits the public role for women.
He traveled to the US to look for, unsuccessful, diplomatic recognition at that time Bill Clinton Administration.
His name regularly appeared in the Taliban newspaper, Shariat.
In 1998, Shariates recorded changes to Stanekzai’s fate: he was replaced as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, and then stopped appearing in a news report at all for a long stretch.
According to several officials in Kabul at the time, Stanekzai runs Afoul from the Taliban leadership, perhaps for reasons that involve abuse of power and loose attitude towards alcohol.
He was detained under the house, and was said to be a personal focus of anger by the Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar at that time.
What saves Stankekzai, according to his friends, is a sustainable connection with the Pakistani military intelligence agency, which holds power over the Taliban leadership.
A few months later, he reappeared in a maturity capacity, as Deputy Minister of Health.
Stanekzai, however, denied allegations of violations and said his move from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the Ministry of Health was a routine robbery.
Today, it is a face on TV, talking about how the Taliban wants relationships with India as before, with a focus on trade and other economic activities.
In recent television speech, he even talked about the possibility of trade with India through Pakistan, while also calling for air routes to stay open.
(NYT and TNN)