Lucknow: Afghanistan foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi was on Saturday accorded a rousing reception during his visit to the prestigious Islamic seminary Darul Uloom at Deoband in Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur district, amid controversy over not allowing women journalists covering the event.

The controversy, which was triggered by the Afghan embassy’s refusal to permit women scribes in Muttaqi’s presser in Delhi, followed him at Deoband also as the women journalists, who reached there to cover the visit, were reportedly denied entry into the institution.

Earlier, the seminary had said that the women scribes would be seated behind the curtains in the library, where the Afghan minister was scheduled to deliver a speech. The seminary said that it (the women scribes seated behind curtains) was

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