Taliban Claimed To Have Taken Control Of Panjshir; Resistance Denies

Pic courtesy: AFP

Kabul: Three Taliban sources of news agency Reuters said the terror group had seized the Panjshir valley north of Kabul on Friday, the last of the provinces of Afghanistan holding out against it, although a resistance leader denied it had fallen. The denial though came from the resistance leader.

“By the grace of Allah Almighty, we are in control of the entire Afghanistan. The troublemakers have been defeated and Panjshir is now under our command,” one Taliban commander was quoted as saying by Reuters.

Deafening sounds of celebratory gunfire were heard all over Kabul and Facebook accounts were full of mentions of the fall of Panjshir.

However, one of the leaders of the force and former Vice-President Amrullah Saleh said his side had not given up.

“There is no doubt we are in a difficult situation. We are under invasion by the Taliban,” Saleh was quoted as saying in a video clip posted to Twitter by a BBC World journalist.

“We have held the ground, we have resisted,” Saleh said.

The reports of the fall of Panjshir were dismissed by several other resistance leaders. “News of Panjshir conquests is circulating on Pakistani media. This is a lie,” said the leader of the forces, Ahmad Massoud.

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