Visa to Taliban leader after suggestions of intel agencies

NEW DELHI: Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, who attended a conference in Goa, was granted visa following suggestions of intelligence agencies which apparently told the Home Ministry the challenges India may face in Afghanistan after withdrawal of international forces.

Sources said Zaeef was granted visa following detailed deliberations in the Home Ministry during which intelligence agencies strongly backed the move arguing that India may have to deal with the Taliban when US and NATO forces leave Afghanistan next year.

Zaeef, a confident of Mullah Omar who had headed the Taliban government in Afghanistan till 2001 before the US invasion, attended the Think Fest in Goa in last weekend.

Pakistan's intelligence agency ISI's continuous influnece over the Taliban might have forced the Indian intelligence agencies to recalibrate approach towards the terror group.

The decision was a complete U-turn of the Home Ministry's stated tough position against global terrorist outfit and stringent background check done while granting visa to nationals of Pakistan, Afghanistan, China and a few other countries, sources said.