Taliban on Saturday claimed to have captured the Panjshir Governor’s office amid fresh clashes with resistance forces in the valley.
According to unconfirmed reports, Taliban forces had entered Bazarak, the capital of Panjshir province, and stormed the provincial governor’s office there.
Panjshir is the last province in Afghanistan holding out against the Taliban after the hardline insurgent group wrested control of the country last month.
Taliban sources said on Friday the group's fighters had taken the valley, although the opposition denied it had fallen. Premature celebration by the insurgents, which involved firing their guns into the air, killed two people and wounded 12 others in Kabul, according to an AP report.
Nearly 600 Taliban fighters were killed in Afghanistan's northeastern province of Panjshir, the last Afghan province holding out against the hard-line Islamist group, the Afghan resistance forces have claimed.
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On Saturday, Taliban sources told Reuters that fighting was continuing in Panjshir but the advance was slowed by landmines placed on the road to the capital Bazarak and the provincial governor's compound.
"Demining and offensives are both going on at the same time," the source said.
It was not immediately possible to get independent confirmation of events in Panjshir, which is walled off by mountains except for a narrow entrance.
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Meanwhile, National Resistance Front of Afghanistan, which groups opposition forces loyal to local leader Ahmad Massoud, said Taliban forces reached the Darband heights on the border between Kapisa province and Panjshir but were pushed back.
"The defence of the stronghold of Afghanistan is unbreakable," Front spokesman Fahim Dashty said in a tweet.
In a Facebook post, Massoud insisted his forces would resist and said Panjshir "continues to stand strongly in the fight".
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