India, Oct. 11 -- Amid the ongoing row over the absence of women journalists at a press conference by Afghanistan's Taliban regime's foreign minister, the Editors Guild of India on Saturday "strongly condemned" the exclusion and said that such a "discriminatory" act was "deeply troubling" regardless of whether the ministry of external affairs coordinated the event.

The press conference held by Taliban foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, who is on a diplomatic visit to India, sparked a political row and gender rights controversy, after women were allegedly barred from attending it.

Several political leaders, including Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and P Chidambaram, and TMC MP Mahua Moitra, expressed dismay over the exclusion of female ...