new delhi in the turbulent endgame to the afghanistan crisis sher mohammad abbas stanekzai sheru to the class of 1982 at dehraduns indian military academy has become as much the face of the talibans india outreach as he is the radical regimes pointsman for political transitionback in the 1970s when the older generation of afghans experienced the last stretch of peace stanekzai and two others who would go on to become central figures in the troubled nations history deposed president ashraf ghani and afghanamerican peace envoy zalmay khalilzad were all busy finding themselves while studying on scholarships abroadread also10 nontaliban afghans who matterno one has absolute power in afghanistan not even the taliban here are 10 regional warlords who are likely to influence the countrys landscape in the coming daysstanekzai now the chief negotiator for the taliban spent those years in military fatigues at the foothills of the himalayas training at indias prestigious military school on breaks his batch of young afghans would find themselves in the hills of kashmir or on the sets of bollywood films hoping for a photo with the starslike the other two his journey from being an ima cadet to the deputy head of the talibans political office captures an arc of the long afghan conflict at the time ideological lines back home were already firming up on one side a communist approach looking toward the soviet union on the other a wave of muslim brotherhood conservatismsome of stanekzais former classmates in india say he largely shied away from politics but they recall that he leaned toward personal conservatism including avoiding nonhalal meat he was the most disciplined of his batch very focused and organised recalled abdul razique samadi who was stanekzais senior at ima even if he smoked a cigarette he would do it away from our attentionafghanistan crisis live updatesthere was little to suggest that stanekzai would someday become a top aide to one of the talibans main guerrilla commanders abdul rab rasoul sayyaf his role was as a liaison with pakistani military intelligence a relationship that according to those who have known him has shaped his political careerwhile ideologically stanekzai was with the antisoviet mujahedeen as an urbanite he didnt quite fit socially one friend who knew him well in the 1980s said in quetta pakistan where their group operated he would often go out to restaurants with his wife a subject of gossip among the fighters the friend recalled stanekzai berating his fellow mujahedeen for outdated notions about keeping women hidden at homewhen the pakistanbacked taliban took over kabul sweeping in after the anarchic civil war that followed the soviet withdrawal stanekzai became deputy foreign minister his english skills again made him a focal point for the international media and diplomats a voice for a government that banned public roles for womenhe travelled to the us to seek unsuccessfully diplomatic recognition by the then bill clinton administration his name regularly appeared in the taliban newspaper