Taliban forces clashed with fighters of the Panjshir resistance. At least 41 Taliban fighters were killed, members of the anti-Taliban opposition group told Reuters. 20 Taliban fighters have been taken, hostage. Panjshir has been the only province the Taliban has been unable to take over.
The clash comes a day after the Taliban clashed with NRF (Taliban National Resistance Front of Afghanistan), which killed seven Taliban fighters
Afghanistan’s self-anointed caretaker president Amrullah Saleh, who was previously part of the Panjshir resistance is currently at Panjshir and is leading a resistance movement against the Taliban.
The Taliban suffered heavy casualties as 34 Taliban fighters were killed in an ambush at Gaza section of Polhsar in Andarab,
Fahim Dashti, a spokesman for the National Resistance Forces, a group loyal to local leader Ahmad Massoud, said the attack, which may have been a probe to test the valley's defences, was repulsed with seven Taliban killed and a similar number wounded, while two members of the NRF (Taliban National Resistance Front of Afghanistan) forces were wounded.
“Last night, the Taliban attacked Panjshir, but were defeated with 7 dead and several wounded,” Bismillah Mohammadi, a member of the resistance movement who served as a minister under exiled President Ashraf Ghani, said in a tweet.
Ahmad Massoud, son of the former anti-Soviet mujahideen commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, has established himself in the Panjshir valley with a force of several thousand and has called for talks with the Taliban. Massoud, however, said that if the Taliban encroached the Panjshir valley, there will be resistance.
So far, the Taliban and the NRF have been engaged in talks. The Taliban, in the meantime, has cut off telecommunication services in the valley for two days, IANS reports. Residents have also said that the Taliban has closed off all roads to Panjshir and increased the prices of food.
