A FORMER Taliban government official with links to Mullah Mohammed Omar has been living in Britain for almost two years after being granted asylum by the Home Office.

Mohammad Ihsan Mutmain, a former kung fu champion who served on Afghanistan’s Olympic committee, is thought to have obtained a visa for travel to Britain by claiming that he was taking part in a sports competition here. He applied for refugee status soon after his arrival.

Mutmain, 37, who lives in Croydon, south London, is thought to be the brother of Abdul Shakoor Mutmain, the former Taliban sports minister, and related to Abdul Hai Mutmain, the official spokesman for Omar, the elusive Taliban leader.

He has told acquaintances in London that he once arranged and competed in sports exhibitions for Omar’s pleasure in Kandahar, the Taliban’s former stronghold in southern Afghanistan.

Mutmain also reportedly worked at the commerce department, which creamed off profits from the country’s heroin trade to fund the Taliban’s civil war with the Northern Alliance before it was ousted at the end of 2001.

He is one of at least five people who have been given permission to stay in Britain despite serving under the fundamentalist Taliban regime. Three of these, who fled Afghanistan after October 2001, when the West launched airstrikes on the country, claim they were coerced into fighting for the Taliban.

It is believed that at least a further dozen asylum claims have been lodged by people with links to the Taliban, including a former police lieutenant. Tony Blair is thought to be so concerned by the trend that he has demanded to be kept informed by immigration officials.

The issue is also threatening Britain’s relationship with the transitional Afghan government, which believes that former Taliban figures of Mutmain’s stature should face justice in their home country rather than being given sanctuary abroad.

Dr Abdul Wahab, deputy ambassador at the Afghan embassy in London, expressed “disappointment” with the Home Office and said he would be seeking an urgent meeting with the department.

This weekend, a Home Office spokesman said Mutmain arrived in Britain in March 2001 and was granted asylum after claiming he was fleeing the “murderous” Taliban regime.

Mutmain told immigration officers that he was a martial arts champion, but it remains unclear whether he covered up his involvement with the Taliban authorities.

One of five brothers from the Paghman district north of Kabul, Mutmain, a Pashtun, is believed to have switched allegiances between Afghanistan’s warring factions on several occasions before the Taliban came to power in 1996.

He is thought to have studied kung fu in Iran and later became president of Afghanistan’s martial arts federation. When Abdul Shakoor Mutmain was appointed sports minister under the Taliban, he joined him on the national Olympic committee.

Last week sources in London’s Afghan community said Mutmain had kept a low profile. However, he has admitted to some people that as well as being a member of the Olympic committee, he had served the Taliban in “one or two other roles”.

Mutmain was unavailable for comment.

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