Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, a key Taliban leader has an India connect. Stanikzai was a foreign cadet at the Indian Military Academy in Dehradun. Then 20-year-old was part of the 45 cadet Bhagat Battalion’s Keren Company of the 1982 batch.
A report by Times of India says that his batchmates remember him as ‘Sheru’, a friendly kid next door without any radical view.
After pre-commission training at the IMA, he joined the Afghan National Army and fought against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
By 1996 he had left the army and joined Taliban. Face of the Taliban negotiations with the world, he worked as the acting foreign minister for the regime.
Stanikzai has been in command at the political office of Taliban in Doha since 2012 and is expected to take an important position in the new leadership.