Asia

Home page

Asia

Taliban says hundreds of fighters heading to take Panjshir Valley

23 August 2021 11:23 (UTC +04:00)

The Taliban has said “hundreds” of its fighters were heading to the Panjshir Valley, one of the few parts of Afghanistan not yet controlled by the group, APA reports citing Aljazeera.

Since the Taliban overran Afghanistan, flickers of resistance have begun to emerge with some ex-government troops gathering in the Panjshir, north of Kabul, long known as an anti-Taliban bastion.

“Hundreds of Mujahideen of the Islamic Emirate are heading towards the state of Panjshir to control it, after local state officials refused to hand it over peacefully,” the group wrote on its Arabic Twitter account on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Ahmad Massoud, whose forces control the last significant anti-Taliban holdout, said on Sunday he hoped to hold talks peacefully with the group that seized power in Kabul a week ago but that his forces were ready to fight.

“We want to make the Taliban realise that the only way forward is through negotiation,” he told the Reuters news agency by telephone from his stronghold in the Panjshir Valley, where he has gathered forces made up of remnants of regular army units and special forces as well as local militia fighters.