Taliban leader Mullah Baradar with Pakistan’s ISI Chief Faiz Hameed
Haaretz: After an interlude of two decades, Pakistan has conquered Afghanistan, again. For Pakistan’s real rulers, the military, the time has come to cash in on that coin. Click here to read more (external link).
Related
Residence leader forces, Ahmed Massoud on his latest message asked people to began their general uprising against the Taliban across Afghanistan. pic.twitter.com/7cphH8CurP
— Tajuden Soroush (@TajudenSoroush) September 6, 2021
Ayesha Tanzeem
VOA News
September 6, 2021
ISLAMABAD – The Taliban said road links to Panjshir valley are now open, and food and other supplies can now be transported. Soon after declaring they had taken over the valley and ended remnants of resistance against their rule, the group said electricity, cellphone and internet services would be restored soon.
“Thank God that we do not have civilian casualties in our fight to capture and conquer Panjshir,” Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said in a press conference in Kabul on Monday.
The Taliban have taken over the provincial capital and the governor’s compound in the valley and shared videos of their fighters in the capital.
Meanwhile, in an audio message on his Facebook page, resistance leader Ahmad Massoud said his forces are still present in Panjshir and will continue to fight the Taliban.
Earlier in the day, pro-resistance Twitter accounts claimed their fighters retreated to the mountains to regroup but that they will continue to fight.
“Last night, we had to make a hard decision in the face of furious enemy attacks and depleted amunations (sic),” said their Twitter message posted Monday afternoon. “Make a last stand in Bazarak and risk the total elimination of our leadership, or retreat to higher ground in order to continue the resistance. We choose the latter.”
Another message, posted at the same time, said their leaders were safe and in good spirits.
“We are on a terrain that we know and best suits the next chapter of our resistance. We know what we are doing! This was expected!” the tweet said.
Massoud is the son of Ahmad Shah Massoud, the Northern Alliance leader who successfully resisted Taliban rule in the 1990s and was nicknamed the “Lion of Panjshir.”
Mujahid said those in the resistance who wanted to return to a normal life in Afghanistan were welcome, but efforts to undermine the new Taliban regime would be considered sedition and dealt with accordingly.
He said work for the formulation of a new Taliban government was complete, but the announcement was delayed since some technical issues remained.
The new ministers, the Taliban spokesman said, might be considered acting ministers to give the government the flexibility to enact changes if needed. He also assured journalists that Taliban chief Hibatullah Akhundzada was alive and would appear in public soon.
Akhundzada’s public absence has given rise to rumors of his death. Taliban founder Mullah Omar had been dead for two years before news of his demise leaked in 2015.
Mujahid also asked women and men to refrain from protesting while the country was going through a transition.
“Why are you protesting at a time when the new government has not taken over yet? We have seen the protests by women. We are trying, and we hope to resolve their issues as soon as possible,” he said.
On Saturday, Taliban fighters in Kabul forcefully broke up a protest by a group of women demanding equal participation in the government. Protesters said the Taliban beat some of them with the butt of their guns, leaving them bloodied, as seen on their social media videos and testimonies.
Mujahid said gatherings of people could become a security issue.
“As you saw, the Kabul airport had a lot of chaos, and then there were horrible attacks there in which foreigners also died,” he said.
A suicide bomb blast at the airport last month, as thousands of Afghans were clamoring to enter the premises in hopes of getting on one of the U.S. or European evacuation flights, left at least 169 Afghans and 13 Americans dead.
The attack was claimed by Islamic State Khorasan Province, the regional chapter of IS. It was considered the first big challenge for the Taliban, who had promised that no terrorist group would be able to use Afghan soil against any other country under their watch.
In Monday’s press conference, Mujahid also promised swift restoration of the Kabul airport with the help of Qatar, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.
“I want to assure you that the airport will be ready for flights soon,” Mujahid said, pointing out that some local flights from Kabul to other Afghan cities had already resumed but work was needed to repair the radar system that he claimed was damaged, along with some other equipment, by U.S. forces before they left.
Hinting at Taliban foreign policy going forward, especially at the Taliban’s interest in the Chinese One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative, Mujahid said given its economic might, China could play a very important role in the reconstruction of Afghanistan.
“The CPEC (China-Pakistan Economic Corridor) project is important for entire Asia, including Afghanistan. If the CPEC route goes through Afghanistan, we would cooperate,” Mujahid said.
CPEC is an arm of the OBOR project, which links northwest China’s Xinjiang province through Pakistan to the Arabian Sea. China has hinted it wants to extend the project to central Asia.
Mujahid also responded to questions on the visit to Kabul over the weekend of Pakistan’s intelligence chief, General Faiz Hameed, the first senior foreign official to visit the Afghan capital since the Taliban takeover.
He said the visit was focused on Pakistan’s concerns over multiple jail breaks during the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan and the release of prisoners involved in militant attacks in Pakistan.
According to Mujahid, Kabul’s security would now be handed over to the Taliban in uniform. Discussing the fate of the former Afghan security forces and military, the Taliban spokesman said they will be merged with Taliban fighters into security forces for the new government.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
September 6, 2021
The Taliban says it has taken complete control of the Panjshir Valley, the last province in Afghanistan where the group faced resistance.
It was not immediately possible to get independent confirmation of events in Panjshir, where the Taliban has cut off phone, Internet, and electricity lines.
The Taliban seized control of most of Afghanistan three weeks ago, taking power in Kabul on August 15 following the collapse of the Western-backed government.
There has since been heavy fighting in Panjshir Valley north of the capital, with the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan resisting Taliban rule.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid issued a statement on September 6 saying Panjshir was now under the control of the Taliban fighters.
“With this victory, our country is completely taken out of the quagmire of war,” Mujahid said.
Resistance Front spokesman Ali Maisam denied the allegation as “not true.”
“The Taliban haven’t captured Panjshir, I am rejecting Taliban claims,” he told the BBC.
Pictures on social media showed Taliban members standing in front of the Panjshir provincial governor’s compound in Bazarak.
Based on reporting by Reuters and AFP
Related
#BREAKING: Kamaluddin Nezami, governor of Panjshir told me via satellite phone that today their positions were bombed by drones several times.
— Tajuden Soroush (@TajudenSoroush) September 5, 2021
#BREAKING: Ex, Samangan MP Zia Arianjad says Panjshir is being bombed by Pakistani drones.
— Tajuden Soroush (@TajudenSoroush) September 5, 2021
Panjshir is under Taliban’s heavy attack. Pakistan’s ISI chief Hameed Faiz is in Kabul Serena hotel monitoring the fight. Pakistan prime minister is engaged talking with world leaders to persuade them to stand alongside Pakistan. The world is watching. Isn't it interesting?
— Tajuden Soroush (@TajudenSoroush) September 5, 2021
Fahim Dashti was in a room where Ahmad Shah Massoud was assassinated in 9/9/2001 but he survived. Today after 20 years in 5/9/2021 he was killed in Panjshir. pic.twitter.com/I5md85TiuE
— Tajuden Soroush (@TajudenSoroush) September 5, 2021
Regretfully, The National Resistance of Afghanistan lost two companions in the holy resistance against oppression and aggression today. Mr. Fahim Dashty, NRF spokesperson, and General Abdul Wudod Zara were martyred. May their memory be eternal!
— National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (@nrfafg) September 5, 2021
Massoud
By RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi
September 5, 2021
The leader of Afghanistan’s resistance front against the Taliban said on September 5 that he welcomed proposals by religious scholars for a negotiated settlement to end the fighting in the Panjshir Valley, the last holdout against Taliban control in Afghanistan, as resistance fighters and the militants both claimed gains.
Ahmad Masud, head of the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (NRFA), made the announcement on the group’s Facebook page amid reports of heavy clashes in the Panjshir Valley.
“To reach a lasting peace, the [NRFA] is ready to stop fighting on condition that the Taliban also stop their attacks and military movements on Panjshir and Andarab,” Masud said, referring to a district in the neighboring province of Baghlan.
Earlier, Afghan media outlets reported that religious scholars had called on the Taliban to accept a negotiated settlement to end the fighting in Panjshir, located about 100 kilometers northeast of Kabul.
There was no immediate reaction from the Taliban.
The fighting came as U.S. General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, warned about a “broader civil war” in Afghanistan as he questioned whether the Taliban could consolidate power as its shifts from an insurgency to governing.
Taliban spokesman Bilal Karimi said earlier on September 5 that its forces had fought their way into Bazarak, the capital of Panjshir, and had captured large quantities of weapons and ammunition.
The opposition, called the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan, claimed it had trapped Taliban fighters in the valley and repelled militant offensives in several districts.
It was not immediately possible to get independent confirmation of events in Panjshir, where the Taliban has cut off phone, Internet, and electricity lines.
Emergency, an Italian aid group that operates a hospital in the valley, said on Twitter late on September 4 that the Taliban had reached the village of Anabah, located around 25 kilometers north inside the 115-kilometer-long valley.
Former Afghan Vice President Amrullah Saleh, a leader of the National Resistance Front, acknowledged earlier in a video message that the front’s forces were in a difficult situation, but he vowed to continue resisting.
“We are under attack from Al-Qaeda, terrorists, the Taliban, and Pakistan’s supporters. But we are defending our country,” Saleh said.
“The resistance continues. The enemy has suffered casualties. We also have suffered casualties. I attended the funeral of one of my companions. But the situation is under our control,” he said in the recording, according to TOLOnews.
Since the Taliban seized Kabul on August 15, the militants have faced resistance from the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan, which groups opposition forces loyal to local leader Ahmad Masud, who said on Facebook that Panjshir “continues to stand strongly.”
The continued fighting has prompted warnings about the possibility of civil war.
Although both sides have held some meetings to resolve the issue peacefully, the talks failed to bear any fruit.
“I think there’s at least a very good probability of a broader civil war,” said Milley, in a bleak assessment.
“I don’t know if the Taliban is going to be able to consolidate power and establish governance,” Milley said, speaking at Ramstein Air Base in Germany.
Milley said if it cannot do that, it will “in turn lead to a reconstitution of Al-Qaeda or a growth of [Islamic State] or other myriad of terrorist groups” over the next three years, referring to Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K) militants in Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, Atta Mohammad Noor, the head of the Jamiat-e Islami party that has ties to the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan, warned that the continuation of the Taliban’s attack on Panjshir will lead to another war in the country.
“If the leaders’ request for a political agreement does not bear any results, the expansion of the resistance front is one of the other options that we will concentrate on,” Noor said on September 4, according to TOLOnews.
With reporting by Reuters and TOLOnews
The situation in the Panjshir valley remains tense and there have been heavy casualties on both sides. In a dispatch from the frontlines, the former Vice President of Afghanistan and the so-called caretaker president of the country Amrullah Saleh has written a moving personal account on the overall situation.
Battle in Panjshir has intensified. The Taliban is inching closer to taking over the Panjshir valley. Five out of seven districts have fallen to the Taliban control.