New Delhi: In a significant diplomatic outreach, Afghanistan’s Taliban-appointed Foreign Minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, has arrived in India for a seven-day visit focused on bilateral and regional issues.

As part of his itinerary, Muttaqi will travel to Darul Uloom Deoband in Uttar Pradesh on Saturday, marking the first-ever visit by a senior Taliban leader to the historic Islamic seminary since the regime’s return to power in Kabul.

Muttaqi is expected to reach Deoband by road around 10:30 am and spend nearly five hours at the institution.

During his stay, he will hold discussions with leading Islamic scholars, including Mufti Abul Qasim Nomani, head of Darul Uloom, and Maulana Arshad Madani, president of the Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind. He will also tour the campus and meet faculty members.

The visit carries deep symbolic and ideological significance. The Deobandi school of thought has historically influenced the Taliban’s worldview.

Many of the movement’s senior leaders studied at Darul Uloom Haqqania in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa — a seminary founded by Maulana Abdul Haq, a Deoband alumnus who later became a teacher there.

His son, Sami-ul-Haq, was widely known as the “Father of the Taliban” for his institution’s role in shaping the group’s ideology.

After Deoband, Muttaqi will travel to Agra on October 12 to visit the Taj Mahal, and later attend a business and industry meeting in New Delhi, hosted by a leading chamber of commerce.

Muttaqi’s trip had earlier been postponed pending a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) travel ban exemption, which was granted last week following a request from India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).

The visit follows a series of backchannel and semi-formal engagements between India and the Taliban.

Earlier this year, Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri met Muttaqi in Kabul, while Afghanistan’s Deputy Minister of Medicine and Food, Hamdullah Zahid, visited India last month for a healthcare exhibition.