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Although resistance forces in the Pankir Valley in northeastern Kabul still avoided them, the Taliban announced on Sunday that hundreds of their fighters were moving towards the area. The National Resistance Front, specially led by Ahmad Massoud, stated that it is ready to fight even if there is no fighting currently.
As the air evacuation continues in the chaotic atmosphere of Kabul Airport, the Taliban in power announced on Sunday (August 22) a major offensive against the Panchir Valley, the only area still resisting them.
The Taliban said on their Arabic Twitter account: “Hundreds of jihadists from the Islamic Emirate are heading to Pankir State to control it after local officials refused to hand over it peacefully.”
With the easy entry of the Taliban into the Afghan capital on August 15, a group of resistance forces formed in the Pankir Valley in the northeast of Kabul, an area that has long been known as an anti-Taliban stronghold. This National Resistance Front (FNR) is led by Ahmed Masood, the son of commander Ahmed Shah Masood, who was assassinated by al-Qaeda in 2001.
According to Reuters, a relative of Ahmed Masood stated that there were no signs of Taliban vehicles entering the valley and no reports of fighting.
“Bloodbath”
FNR spokesperson Ali Maisam Nazary told AFP that the front is preparing for a “prolonged conflict” with the Taliban. According to him, thousands of Afghans have joined the Pankir Valley to fight the new regime.
“If the Taliban continue like this, they will not last. We are ready to defend Afghanistan, and we warn against a massacre,” Ahmed Masood told Arab TV on Sunday.
In another interview with Reuters, he said on Sunday that he hopes to start a dialogue with the Taliban, but added that his troops are ready to fight.
“We want the Taliban to understand that the only way out is negotiation,” he said. “We don’t want war to break out,” he added, however, he said that if the Taliban try to invade the area, his fighters are ready to fight. “They want to boycott any totalitarian regime,” Ahmed Masood said.
Ahmad Massoud called for the formation of an inclusive government that would represent all the different ethnic groups in the country and emphasized that the international community should not recognize “totalitarian regimes.”
In 1997, the legendary warlord Ahmed Shah Masood, nicknamed the “Lion of Pankir”, blew up the Salang Tunnel, which was built during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (1979-1989), thus shutting down the access to the valley from the south. Gate. Despite many attempts, the Taliban never succeeded in capturing Panchir.
AFP and Reuters