Now all power in Afghanistan is in their hands
The Taliban have taken full control of Panjshir Province, the last region in Afghanistan to so far it has been in the hands of the resistance against them, the spokesman of the Islamist movement Zabihullah Mujahid announced today, Reuters reported.
Photos on social media show members of the Taliban movement standing in front of the entrance to the office of the provincial governor of Panjshir.
“With this victory, our country is completely out of the vortex of war and our people will live happily in peace and freedom,” Mujahid said.
The Taliban, the majority of whom are ethnic Pashtuns, have assured that the Panjshir population, which is made up of other ethnicities, will not be discriminated against.
“They are our brothers and sisters and we will work together for the common goal and for the prosperity of the country,” Mujahid said.
Thousands of Taliban fighters stormed Panjshir’s eight counties overnight, the Associated Press reported, citing eyewitnesses who wished to remain anonymous.
The anti-Taliban forces are led by former Vice President Amrulah Saleh and Ahmad Masood, the son of the notorious Taliban fighter Ahmad Shah Masood, who was killed days before the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States. The Panjshir Valley is located in the Hindu Kush Mountains and is difficult to access because there is only one entrance. Local fighters there resisted Soviet troops in the 1980s and then the Taliban a decade later under Masood.
So far, there is no information on Ahmad Masood, leader of the opposition group, the National Resistance Front (FNC), which opposes the Taliban.
On Sunday, September 5, Masood said he accepted the proposals of a group of prominent theologians for negotiations and an end to the fighting. He wrote this on Facebook after the Taliban announced that they had made their way to the capital of Panjshir province and secured the neighboring areas.
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“In order to achieve lasting peace, the FTS is ready to stop fighting, provided the Taliban also stop attacks and military movements in Panjshir and Andarab,” Masood said.
Earlier in the day, Afghan media reported that the Ulema Council of Prominent Theologians had called on the Taliban to agree to talks and a halt to fighting in Panjshir, Reuters reported.
TASS quoted local news agency Hama Press as saying FNS spokesman Fahim Dashti had died fighting the Taliban. On Sunday morning, Dashti wrote on Twitter that Taliban units had been driven out of the countryside.
In the face of a humanitarian catastrophe
Senior Taliban officials met in Kabul on Sunday with UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths, who has promised to continue helping the Afghan people, Taliban spokesman Suhail Shahin said.
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Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, leader of the Taliban’s political wing, and other officials met with Griffiths amid a potentially catastrophic humanitarian crisis caused by a severe drought and economic collapse.
“The UN delegation has promised continued humanitarian support to the Afghan people, saying it would call for further assistance to Afghanistan at the upcoming donor meeting,” Shahin said on Twitter.
Afghanistan, one of the world’s poorest countries, has fallen into crisis over a sharp cut in billions of dollars in foreign aid following the collapse of a Western-backed government and the victory of the Taliban last month.
Shahin also said the Taliban had assured the UN delegation of co-operation and would provide the necessary infrastructure.
The United Nations is expected to convene an international humanitarian conference in Geneva on September 13th to prevent a “looming humanitarian catastrophe,” as Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the situation.
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