Sheru Of IMA's '82 Batch Is Now 1 Of 7 Most Powerful In Taliban

Batchmates recall the ‘likeable guy’ with a ‘striking moustache’

- Shivani Azad

Dehradun: To the 1982 batch of the Indian Military Academy (IMA) in Dehradun, he was “Sheru” — well-built, not very tall, and never religiously inclined. Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, 60, is now one of the seven most powerful men in the Taliban regime about to take the reins of Afghanistan.

Stanikzai was 20 when he came in, one of the 45 gentlemen cadets of the Bhagat Battalion’s Keren Company at the IMA. “He was a likable guy who seemed a little older than the other cadets at the academy. He kept this striking moustache. He certainly had no radical views at the time. He was an average Afghan cadet who seemed to be enjoying his time here,” Major General DA Chaturvedi (retired), his batchmate and a recipient of the Param Vishisht Seva Medal, Ati Vishisht Seva Medal and Sena Medal, told TOI.