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Taliban urge Panjshir Valley fighters to lay down arms

01 September 2021 19:10 (UTC +04:00)

The Taliban have called on fighters in the last major opposition stronghold - the Panjshir Valley north of Kabul - to lay down their weapons, APA reports citing BBC.

In an audio message on Twitter, senior Taliban official Amir Khan Muttaqi said talks had failed and he urged residents to persuade the fighters to give up.

But Afghanistan's ousted defence minister, Bismillah Mohammadi, said an overnight attack on Panjshir was repulsed, resulting in 34 Taliban deaths.

The Panjshir has immense symbolic value in Afghanistan as the area that has resisted occupation by invaders over many decades.

Several thousand anti-Taliban fighters are reported to be holding out in the remote valley with a narrow entrance - little more than 30 miles or so (50km) from the capital.