Battle For Panjshir Valley : Taliban Sends Hundreds Of Fighters To End Resistance

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Taliban has said that hundreds of their fighters are heading for the Panjshir Valley, which is currently the centre of the resistance in war-ravaged Afghanistan.

Hundreds of ‘mujahideen’ are heading towards the state of Panjshir to control the province, Sputnik reported citing a news agency.

The Taliban entered Kabul last week after a months-long offensive, prompting the civilian government to collapse.

Taliban spokesperson said that Bannu, Pul-e-Hisar and Deh Salah districts of Baghlan have been completely cleared of the ‘enemy’. Zabihullah Mujahid said that Taliban are stationed at the gates of Panjshir from Takhar, Badakhshan and Andarab directions. He added that Taliban is trying to resolve the problem with talks.

After the fall of the Ashraf Ghani government, Panjshir remains the epicentre 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.

“If the Taliban try to seize control of Panjshir valley, resistance fighters will be ready to resist, the son of Ahmad Shah Massoud, one of the main leaders of Afghanistan’s anti-Soviet resistance in the 1980s,” Ahmad Massoud told Al Arabiya.

He further added he wants to bring the conflict to an end.

Meanwhile, militants opposing the Taliban have evicted Taliban fighters from three districts in Afghanistan’s northern Baghlan province, but the Taliban have recaptured one of them, a local television channel Tolo News reported on Sunday.

The anti-Taliban fighters seized Pul-e-Hisar, Deh Salah and Banu districts on Friday, but the Taliban recaptured Banu on Saturday, and fighting is underway to re-take two more districts, the local media outlet reported.

After gaining control of the capital Kabul on August 15, the Taliban captured the said districts and thus completed its rule over Baghlan province.

This is the first uprising against the Taliban since Kabul was captured by the group. Taliban have already strengthened its rule over the country’s 33 out of 34 provinces.