Taliban say Panjshir Valley ‘utterly captured’

The Taliban mentioned on Monday they’ve taken management of Panjshir province north of Kabul, the final holdout of anti-Taliban forces within the nation and the one province the Taliban had not seized throughout their blitz throughout Afghanistan final month. However the Nationwide Resistance Power, accountable for the weird feat in defending a small province when massive city centres fell with no struggle, has strongly denied the claims.

ولایت پنجشیر آخرین لانهء دشمن مزدور نیز به گونه کامل فتح گردید https://t.co/95ySJ5ppo6 pic.twitter.com/CCWKFt0zsb

— Zabihullah (..ذبـــــیح الله م ) (@Zabehulah_M33) September 6, 2021

Taliban’s declare of occupying Panjshir is fake. The NRF forces are current in all strategic positions throughout the valley to proceed the struggle. We guarantee the ppl of Afghanistan that the wrestle in opposition to the Taliban & their companions will proceed till justice & freedom prevails.

— Nationwide Resistance Entrance of Afghanistan (@nrfafg) September 6, 2021

And seeing as floor reviews are tough to confirm from the unstable terrain, neither group gave any proof to substantiate their declare.

The Related Press, nevertheless, quoted “eyewitnesses” to assert that 1000’s of Taliban fighters overran eight districts of Panjshir in a single day.

The anti-Taliban forces had been led by the previous vp, Amrullah Saleh, and in addition the son of the long-lasting anti-Taliban fighter Ahmad Shah Massoud who was killed simply days earlier than the 9/11 terrorist assaults in the USA.

Nestled within the towering Hindu Kush mountains, the Panjshir Valley has a single slender entrance. Native fighters held off the Soviets there within the Eighties and in addition the Taliban a decade later beneath the management of Massoud.

Massoud’s son Ahmad had issued an announcement Sunday, calling for an finish to the preventing that had been blistering in current days. The younger British-schooled Massoud mentioned his forces have been prepared to put down their weapons however provided that the Taliban agreed to finish their assault. Late on Sunday dozens of automobiles loaded with Taliban have been seen swarming into Panjshir Valley.

There was no assertion from Saleh, Afghanistan’s former vp who had declared himself the performing president after President Ashraf Ghani fled the nation on August 15 because the Taliban reached the gates of the capital. The Taliban subsequently entered the presidency constructing that day.

Taliban assures security to Panjashir residents however Valley stays distrustful 

In his assertion, Mujahid sought to guarantee residents of Panjshir that they might be secure — at the same time as scores of households reportedly fled into the mountains forward of the Taliban’s arrival.

“We give full confidence to the honourable individuals of Panjshir that they won’t be subjected to any discrimination, that every one are our brothers, and that we’ll serve a rustic and a typical purpose,” Mujahid mentioned in his assertion.

The Taliban stepped-up assault on Panjshir on Sunday, tweeting that their forces had overrun Rokha district, one of many largest of eight districts within the province. A number of Taliban delegations have tried negotiations with the holdouts there, however talks have failed to achieve traction.

Fahim Dashti, the spokesman for the anti-Taliban group, was killed in a battle on Sunday, based on the group’s Twitter account. Dashti was the voice of the group and a outstanding media character throughout earlier governments.

He was additionally the nephew of Abdullah Abdullah, a senior official of the previous authorities who’s concerned in negotiations with the Taliban on the way forward for Afghanistan.

Experiences say evacuation aircraft held by Taliban

In the meantime, at the least 4 planes chartered to evacuate a number of hundred individuals in search of to flee the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan have been unable to depart the nation for days, officers mentioned Sunday, with conflicting accounts rising about why the flights weren’t capable of take off as stress ramps up on the U.S. to assist these left behind to flee.

An Afghan official on the airport within the northern metropolis of Mazar-e-Sharif mentioned that the would-be passengers have been Afghans, a lot of whom didn’t have passports or visas, and thus have been unable to depart the nation. He mentioned they’d left the airport whereas the state of affairs was sorted out.

The highest Republican on the US Home Overseas Affairs Committee, nevertheless, mentioned that the group included Individuals they usually have been sitting on the planes, however the Taliban weren’t letting them take off, successfully “holding them hostage.” He didn’t say the place that info got here from. It was not instantly attainable to reconcile the accounts.

The ultimate days of America’s 20-year struggle in Afghanistan have been marked by a harrowing airlift at Kabul’s airport to evacuate tens of 1000’s of individuals — Individuals and their allies — who feared what the long run would maintain, given the Taliban’s historical past of repression, notably of girls. When the final troops pulled out on Aug. 30, although, many have been left behind.

The US promised to proceed working with the brand new Taliban rulers to get those that wish to omit, and the militants pledged to permit anybody with the right authorized paperwork to depart. However Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas instructed “Fox News Sunday” that Americans and Afghan interpreters have been being stored on six planes.

The Taliban are but to finalise their new regime after rolling into Kabul three weeks in the past at a velocity that analysts say doubtless stunned even the hardline Islamists themselves.

Afghanistan’s new rulers have pledged to be extra “inclusive” than throughout their first stint in energy, which additionally got here after years of battle — first the Soviet invasion of 1979, after which a bloody civil struggle.

They’ve promised a authorities that represents Afghanistan’s advanced ethnic make-up — although ladies are unlikely to be included on the prime ranges.

Girls’s freedoms in Afghanistan have been sharply curtailed beneath the Taliban’s 1996-2001 rule.

This time, ladies will probably be allowed to attend college so long as courses are segregated by intercourse or at the least divided by a curtain, the Taliban’s schooling authority mentioned in a prolonged doc issued on Sunday.

However feminine college students should additionally put on an abaya (gown) and niqab (face-veil), versus the much more conservative burqa necessary beneath the earlier Taliban regime.

Because the Taliban come to grips with their transition from insurgency to authorities they’re going through a bunch of challenges, together with humanitarian wants for which worldwide help is essential.

UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths has arrived in Kabul for a number of days of conferences with the Taliban management, which has promised to assist.

“The authorities pledged that the safety and security of humanitarian staff, and humanitarian access to people in need, will be guaranteed and that humanitarian workers — both men and women — will be guaranteed freedom of movement,” an announcement from UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric mentioned.

The Taliban spokesman tweeted that the group’s delegation assured the UN of cooperation.

Blinken journey to Qatar, Germany

The worldwide group is coming to phrases with the brand new Taliban regime with a flurry of diplomacy.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was due Monday in Qatar, a key participant within the Afghan saga, although he’s not anticipated to fulfill with the militants.

Qatar, a serious US army base, has been the gateway for 55,000 individuals airlifted out of Afghanistan, practically half the whole evacuated by US-led forces after the Taliban takeover.

He will even converse to the Qataris about efforts alongside Turkey to reopen Kabul’s airport, which is critical for flying in badly wanted humanitarian assist and evacuating remaining Afghans.

Blinken will then head Wednesday to the US air base in Ramstein, Germany, a short lived residence for 1000’s of Afghans transferring to the USA, from which he’ll maintain a digital 20-nation ministerial assembly on the disaster alongside German Overseas Minister Heiko Maas.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday known as for dialogue with the Taliban.

“We simply have to talk to the Taliban about how we can get people who have worked for Germany out of the country and bring them to safety,” she instructed reporters.

With inputs from companies