In a move which is expected to dramatically change power equations in the sub-continent and Central Asia, India has established direct contacts with Afghanistan?s Taliban government. Although the secret contacts sanctioned by the BJP-led government fall far short of any diplomatic recognition of the world?s ultimate Islamic fundamentalist regime, they assume enormous significance in the light of a breakthrough in the UN-brokered Afghanistan peace talks which ended here on Sunday. Sources at the peace talks, at which the Taliban was represented by a high-level, two-member delegation, said India turned over a new leaf in its relations with the Islamic militia when it sent a plane-load of medicines to the rebel-controlled areas in Afghanistan some time ago. The supply of medicines was in response to a desperate request from the Taliban to New Delhi for humanitarian relief in Afghanistan, where fighting has been a way of life for close to 20 years since the Soviet invasion in 1979. India had no difficulty in sending the consignment of medicines to Afghanistan, sources here said. This was because New Delhi has consistently followed a policy of providing humanitarian assistance to all Afghans, irrespective of their politics, even during the Soviet occupation of Kabul. But New Delhi quickly cashed in on the contacts. As a result, Ariana, Afghanistan?s national airline, now under the control of the Taliban, has been secretly allowed to fly to Amritsar regularly. Due to the extreme sensitivity of the operation and the secrecy surrounding it, the sources, however, declined to go into details of the flights or their cargo. With the prospects of peace suddenly brightening on the Afghan horizon following the UN-brokered talks here last weekend, the BJP-led government?s decision to open contacts with the Taliban may turn out to be an initiative as significant as Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee?s bus journey to Lahore or the decision to end India?s nuclear ambiguity. Sources at the peace talks here said the Indian initiative complements similar moves by a number of countries in recent months. Foreign ministers of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan have met Taliban representatives, mostly in Pakistan, since November last year. The Iranians, strong backers of the anti-Taliban alliance, of which Afghan Shias are a part, have also met representatives of the Taliban in Dubai recently. The peace negotiations here are a result of talks in Pakistan between Boris Shikhmuradov, the foreign minister of Turkmenistan, and leaders of the Taliban. Sources said the BJP government?s bold decision to start talking to the Taliban is timely, even if controversial in view of the Islamic militia?s extremist positions and its Pakistani patronage. With the talks to be continued in Afghanistan after the Id festival later this month, New Delhi?s initiative has ensured that India will not be cut out of the peace action and what lies beyond in its backyard as the UN holds out hopes of a return to normality in Kabul.