Taliban claim control over Panjshir Valley, last bastion of resistance in Afghanistan

Taliban announced on Monday that they have captured Panjshir Valley, the last pocket of resistance in Afghanistan. Panjshir Valley was under the control of the National Resistance Force of Afghanistan led by Ahmad Massoud.  

Taliban announced on Monday that they have captured Panjshir
Valley, the last pocket of resistance in Afghanistan. Panjshir Valley was under
the control of the National Resistance Force of Afghanistan led by Ahmad Massoud. Taliban
chief spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said, “With this victory, our country is
completely taken out of the quagmire of war.”

Also Read | Final frontier: Panjshir resistance seeks negotiated settlement with Taliban

On Sunday night, the Ahmad Massoud-led group acknowledged
that they had suffered major losses in the hands of the Taliban. Massoud called
for a negotiated settlement to end the fighting which he said should be chaired
by religious scholars.

The National Resistance Force of Afghanistan (NRF) comprises
local fighters loyal to Ahmad Massoud, son of legendary anti-Soviet, anti-Taliban
commander Ahmad Shah Massoud and remnants of the Afghan military which had
retreated to the Panjshir Valley.

Also Read | Taliban’s Abdul Ghani Baradar hurt in clashes with Haqqani Network: Report

Chief spokesperson for the NRF, Fahim Dashty — a well-known
Afghan journalist and General Abdul Wudod Zara were killed in the latest
conflagration between the NRF and the Taliban.

The conquest of Panjshir Valley essentially means that the
whole of Afghanistan is now under Taliban’s control with no militant resistance
against the hard-line Islamist group which has a record of suppressing civil
liberties. 

The Panjshir Valley is famed for successfully resisting the
Soviet forces in the 1980s and the Taliban in the 1990s. However, this time, even
Panjshir Valley fell to the Taliban.

Meanwhile, all is not well with the Taliban either. Reports
of faction feuds are coming out every other day. The most high-profile of them
was when it was reported that Taliban’s political head Mullah Abdul Ghani
Baradar was injured in a clash with the Haqqani Network. The incident created
such a crisis that the chief of Pakistan’s ISI is said to have been forced to
intervene.

Local media reports indicated earlier that the Taliban would announce
the new Afghan government soon. However, the factional feuds are likely to
delay government formation creating more instability for the war-torn country.
The Taliban have promised Afghans to have a more “inclusive” government than
they did when they were in power from 1996 to 2001.