Taliban fight for final holdout
New rulers pledge that this time they will be more accommodating
Kabul, Sept. 3: Anti-Taliban fighters in Afghanistan’s Panjshir Valley said on Friday they were battling to repulse “heavy” assaults, as the Islamists seek to capture the last holdout province defying their rule.
Efforts to strike a peace deal between the two sides have failed, and the Taliban are keen to cap their lightning military offensive which saw them seize control of the rest of Afghanistan last month.
“The Taliban have a significant advantage,” said Nishank Motwani, an Afghan analyst based in Australia, saying the Islamists were emboldened by their recent victories.
“They are very well armed, and they have the psychological factor in their favour in that they precipitated the fall of the government so quickly.”
The Taliban seized an enormous arsenal of weapons and military kit that the now departed US provided to the defeated
Afghan army, as well as the support of prisoners they freed from jails.
“The Taliban also have shock troops, including the use of suicide tactics,” Motwani added. Fighters from the National Resistance Front (NRF), made up of anti-Taliban militia fighters and former Afghan security forces, are understood to have significant weapon stockpiles too in the valley, which lies around 80 kilometres (50 miles) north of Kabul.
But many Afghans are terrified of a repeat of the Taliban’s harsh rule from 1996 to 2001. The new rulers have pledged this time they will be more accommodating, but many in Panjshir are deeply sceptical. Hours after their warning, Taliban forces launched renewed attacks including from the south of Panjshir from Kapisa, as well as from the Khawak pass to the west of the valley. — have