One of the Taliban’s seven most powerful figures, Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai was a cadet at the prestigious Indian Military Academy (IMA) in Uttarakhand’s Dehradun. The images of his IMA Days were shared on Twitter.

In the 1980s, he left the Afghan Army, which he had joined as a lieutenant, and joined “Jihad” against the Soviet army, fighting with Nabi Mohammadi`s Harakat-e Inqilab-e Islami and Abd ul Rasul Sayaf`s Ittehad-e-Islami, as commander of its south-western front.