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KABUL: Afghanistan’s Taliban foreign minister will visit India this month after the UN Security Council Committee temporarily lifted a travel ban, Kabul’s foreign ministry confirmed to AFP on Saturday.
Amir Khan Muttaqi will become the first senior Taliban leader to visit India since they returned to power in 2021 following the withdrawal of the US military.
The foreign ministry told AFP the minister would go to India “after the Moscow summit” on October 7, which includes representatives from China, India, Iran and Central Asian nations.
The UN Security Council Committee has granted an exemption to the travel ban on Muttaqi, who is under UN sanctions, to allow him to visit New Delhi between October 9 and 16.
India’s point-person on Afghanistan Anand Prakash visited Kabul in April to discuss political and trade relations.
Russia is the only country so far to have officially recognized the Taliban government, which has imposed a strict version of Islamic law.
The Taliban government, which recently released several American and British prisoners, says it wants to have good relations with other countries, notably the United States, despite the 20-year war against US-led forces.
Most countries advise against travel to Afghanistan.
The announcement of the India visit comes just days after the Taliban authorities shut down Afghanistan’s Internet and mobile networks.
The authorities still have not commented on why they imposed a telecoms blackout for 48 hours.

ISLAMABAD: The government in Azad Kashmir has reached an agreement with a civil rights alliance to end days of unrest in the northern Pakistani region, a Pakistani federal minister announced on Saturday, following the killing of at least nine people in deadly clashes.

The clashes erupted after calls for an indefinite ‘lockdown’ by the Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee (JKJAAC) from Sept. 29, seeking removal of perks for government officials, ending 12 seats in the regional assembly reserved for Kashmiri migrants who came from the Indian-side of the territory, and royalty for hydel power projects.

The protests have turned violent as protesters and police came face to face and clashed at various locations, with authorities confirming killing of six civilians and three policemen this week. The crisis prompted Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to send a negotiations team to the territory to join the regional government in talks with the protesters.

“It was the wisdom of local and national leadership and the spirit of dialogue that enabled us to resolve this stand-off peacefully, without violence, without division, and with mutual respect,” Pakistani Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal, who was part of the negotiations, said on X.

Pakistani Parliamentary Affairs Minister Dr. Tariq Fazal Chaudhry shared a copy of the agreement on X, which included the formation of a judicial commission to probe violent incidents, reduction in the number of regional government ministers and secretaries, and setting up a committee on reserved seats for migrants.

“Persons killed in the incidents of 1st and 2nd October 2025 shall be compensated with monetary benefits equivalent to LEAs (law enforcement agencies),” it read. “Gunshot injuries will be compensated at the rate of Rs10 lac ($3,554) per injured person. A government job shall be granted to one of the family members of each dead person within 20 days.”

The picture shared on Oct. 4, 2025, shows government officials and representative o Joint Action Committee in Islamabad, Pakistan. (Ahsan Iqbal/X)

Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan since their independence from British rule in 1947. Both claim the territory in its entirety, but rule in part.

Azad Kashmir is the part administered by Pakistan. The negotiations between the government and AKJAAC followed shutter-down and wheel-jam strikes that disrupted public life in the territory.

In May 2024, a similar wave of protests paralyzed the region. After six days of strikes and violent clashes that left at least four dead, PM Sharif approved a grant of Rs 23 billion ($86 million) for subsidies on flour and electricity, and a judicial commission to review elite privileges.

Protest leaders suspended their campaign at that time but warned that failure to implement the package would fuel fresh unrest.