Panjshir Resistance Denies Taliban Seizing of The Province

Ahmed Moamar

Local Afghani media outlets confirmed today, Saturday, that the resistant groups anti-Taliban that base in Panjshir have denied reports pretending that the movement pawed the control of the state that were located in the northern part of Afghanistan.

The northern resistance denied the fall of Panjshir at all.

Earlier, a Kabul police source told Sputnik, a Russian news agency, that the Taliban had captured the Afghan province of Panjshir.

The source added that Panjshir fell, and the militants arrested the resistance, and its soldiers, and former First Vice-President of Afghanistan Amrullah Saleh and Ahmed Masoud fled the country to the neighboring country Tajikistan.

Another source told, "Sputnik that the published news that Ahmed Masoud and Amrullah Saleh, the former First Vice President of the Republic, have left Panjshir for Tajikistan is just a rumor and they are in Panjshir."

Yesterday, Bilal Karimi, a spokesman for the Taliban announced full control of the province of Panjshir in northern Afghanistan.

Panjshir province, which is located near the capital, Kabul, has become a haven for thousands of people who want to join the resistance movement led by Ahmed Masoud, son of the late Afghan well-known leader Ahmed Shah Masoud, who recently warned the Taliban against entering the state of Panjshir, his family's hometown and current stronghold.

Masoud affirmed that he has the support of the forces of the previous government and the people, and at the same time expressed his acceptance of the idea of a comprehensive government in the country that includes the movement.

However, clashes continued in the last major stronghold in Afghanistan against the Taliban until Friday, after violent clashes between Taliban fighters and an anti-group based in the Panjshir Valley.

According to the BBC, the Panjshir Valley is a mountainous and inaccessible region north of Kabul, the capital city of Afghanistan, that has a long history of resisting insurgent groups and in the late 1990s, it was a center of resistance against the Taliban during their rule in the mid of 90s.