Afghan Taliban capture another important district

PESHAWAR: The Afghan Taliban continued advancing on major places and captured a strategically important Saidabad district of Maidan Wardak province, which is called the gateway of Afghanistan’s capital city Kabul.

Taliban said with Saidabad fallen to them, the capital city of Kabul is disconnected from Ghazni province. So far, the Taliban said they had seized control of 117 districts across Afghanistan.

“With the last Saidabad district fallen to us on Saturday, we are now on the gateway of Kabul city but, we don’t have any intention to capture it at the moment,” Taliban spokesman told The News.

Taliban commanders in Maidan Wardak, also known as Maidan Wardag, said they didn’t face any major resistance from the Afghan security forces. Taliban claimed to have seized a huge catch of arms and ammunition from the Afghan security forces.
According to the Taliban, they had captured “hundreds” of Afghan security personnel after brief clashes with them in some places.

“It was really a surprise to us as we didn’t expect Saidabad district will come into our hands so quickly. The only place in Maidan Wardag is its provincial headquarters Maidan Shahr that is still in control of the Afghan forces but frankly speaking, we didn’t attempt to capture it as per the policy of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,” said a Taliban commander.

Pleading anonymity, he said the ‘Islamic Emirate’, referred to the Taliban movement, they would not capture the capital city or headquarters of any province till the September 2021 deadline of the US forces when they are withdrawn from Afghanistan.

“By September 2021, we would not carry out any major attack on any provincial headquarters or advance on the Afghan capital city to topple the government. We are in an agreement with the United States that we signed in the presence of the international community in Doha in 2020 and we don’t want to be blamed on violating the accord,” the Taliban commander argued.
According to Zabihullah Mujahid, previously they had captured 60 districts across Afghanistan but their recent campaign in Afghanistan had brought 117 districts under their direct control.

“By the grace of Allah Almighty, we are in control of 177 districts in Afghanistan and these districts are cited in all parts of the country,” Zabihullah Mujahid said.

He said they had installed “an Islamic Sharia” system in the fallen districts and providing services to the people.

Of total of 134 provinces in Afghanistan, the Taliban don’t have any province in their control, which as mentioned isn’t their policy to capture before September 2021.