Hundreds of Taliban fighters Heading to Panjshir Valley- Raising Fears of Heavy Fighting
AFGHANISTAN: Hundreds of Taliban fighters were heading to the rugged Panjshir valley, the group said in a statement, raising fears of heavy fighting in the last stronghold of resistance to the militants.
“Hundreds of Mujahideen of the Islamic Emirate are heading towards the state of Panjshir to control it, after local state officials refused to hand it over peacefully,” the group wrote on its Arabic Twitter account.
Panjshir valley is the home of Ahmad Massoud, the son of a locally renowned veteran of the Afghan-Soviet war, the late resistance commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, who fought during a bitter civil war with the Taliban after the departure of Russians in 1989.
Mr Massoud has formed the National Resistance Front, a political and military organisation in the valley that is opposed to the Taliban’s rule. Ali Maisam Nazary, a spokesman for Mr Massoud, said on Sunday that a force of 9,000 fighters had gathered in the valley and was preparing for “long term conflict”.
Thousands of Afghan civilians and a smaller number of security forces fled to the valley following the sudden fall of Kabul on August 15, joined by Vice President Amrullah Saleh, who grew up in the valley and fought alongside Mr Massoud’s forces.
The Taliban entered Kabul last week after a months-long offensive, prompting the civilian government to collapse. After the fall of the Ashraf Ghani government, Panjshir remains the epicenter of the resistance led by Ahmad Massoud and Amrullah Saleh, the first vice president from Ghani`s cabinet.
According to the Russian news agency, members of the Taliban are waiting for an order to attack the holdout Panjshir province northeast of the Afghan capital of Kabul.
Earlier on Sunday, the Taliban offered Ahmad Massoud, the leader of the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan, to surrender. Meanwhile, Massoud said that they would not surrender and that the locals were ready to fight.
Massoud also said that he and his supporters wanted a peaceful solution and were ready to negotiate an inclusive government with the Taliban, but the group declined the offer.
(With Inputs From Agencies)