October 11, 2025—Afghanistan’s Taliban Foreign Minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, arrived in Uttar Pradesh today for a two-day visit to the historic Darul Uloom Deoband seminary, marking the first such trip by a senior Taliban official since the group’s 2021 takeover in Kabul. The itinerary, which also includes a tour of the Taj Mahal in Agra on October 12, has ignited a firestorm of debate in India, blending religious diplomacy with geopolitical undercurrents. Darul Uloom Deoband, the influential Islamic institution founded in 1866, has long-standing ties to Afghan Deobandi scholars who shaped the Taliban’s ideology