Taliban claim capturing all Panjshir districts

ISLAMABAD: As the fighting continues in Panjshir, the Taliban Sunday said they had captured all districts of the Panjshir province but the fighting was ongoing at the provincial center.

The Resistance Front, however, rejected the Taliban’s claim, saying they had retaken Paryan district from the Taliban forces. Both the Taliban forces and the Resistance Front are claiming to have an upper hand on the battlefield. AhmadullahWasiq, deputy head of the Taliban’s Cultural Commission, Sunday said the Taliban forces had captured all districts of Panjshir, reports TOLO news.

“The Mujahideen of the Islamic Emirate are actively present in all areas and districts of Panjshir. All the areas are under their control. They only faced resistance in Bazarak in the center of Panjshir,” he said.

The Taliban forces posted a video on social media saying they had taken heavy equipment used by the Resistance Front. “We have taken several cannons of the enemy,” said Mawlawi Sakhidad Majmar, a Taliban commander.

The Resistance Front spokesman, Fahim Dashti, however, rejected the Taliban’s claim of taking Panjshir districts, saying they had retaken Paryan district. Dashti in a tweet said the Taliban had suffered casualties.

“Panjshir’s Paryan has been completely cleared of Taliban. At least, '1,000 terrorists' were stuck as their entrance and exit ways were closed. All the aggressors were arrested or killed by the local people with support from the resistance forces while they were fleeing. Former foreign minister Hanif Atmar urged both sides to stop fighting and resolve the problem with dialogue, adding that the

fighting will have negative consequences for the country’s stability.

Meanwhile, the leader of the Afghan opposition group resisting the Taliban forces in the Panjshir valley north of Kabul Sunday said he welcomed proposals from religious scholars for a negotiated settlement to end the fighting.

Ahmad Massoud, head of the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (NRFA), made the announcement on the group's Facebook page. "The NRF in principle agrees to solve the current problems and put an immediate end to the fighting and continue negotiations," Massoud said in the Facebook post.

"To reach a lasting peace, the NRF is ready to stop fighting on condition that Taliban also stop their attacks and military movements on Panjshir and Andarab," he said, referring to a district in the neighbouring province of Baghlan. Earlier, Afghan media outlets reported that an Ulema council of religious scholars had called on the Taliban to accept a negotiated settlement to end the fighting in Panjshir.