Taliban capture crucial districts in Panjshir? Conflicting reports emerge on the war

As fighting raged on in the Panjshir Valley of Afghanistan, the last bastion of resistance against the Taliban, reports emerged that the Taliban has taken control of crucial districts in the region. Details are very sketchy and conflicted. The National Resistance Front of Afghanistan, the grouping of forces loyal to Tajik leader Ahmad Massoud, said it surrounded "thousands of terrorists" in Khawak pass and the Taliban had abandoned vehicles and equipment in the Dashte Rewak area and that "heavy clashes" were going on, Reuters reported. In a Facebook post, Massoud insisted Panjshir "continues to stand strongly."

The National Resistance Front Fahim Dashti tweeted that about 600 Taliban members have been liquidated in various districts of Panjshir and that more than 1,000 fighters have been captured or surrendered themselves. 

However, the Taliban claimed it has made massive inroads in the area. Taliban spokesman Bilal Karimi tweeted that the districts of Khinj, strategically very significant, and Unabah have been taken, giving Taliban forces control of four of the province's seven districts.

Longwar Journal's Bill Roggio, on the ground in Afghanistan, tweeted: "Still fog of war in Panjshir. All still unconfirmed but it looks bad. It appears the districts of Unabah, Shotul, Ruhka and Bazarak are Taliban controlled and possibly Dara as well. Fighting in Paryan reported," he tweeted.

Panjshir Valley is the only region out of Taliban's hands, courtesy its geographic ruggedness, as also the fact that it is jealously guarded as the birthplace of one of Afghanistan's greatest sons, Ahmad Shah Massoud. A veteran Tajik commander, Massoud was a grand, unifying figure in the country, instrumental in the formation of Northern Alliance that was armed by countries including India, Iran and Russia, and that drove out the Taliban. Under his command, the Panjshir valley kept the Taliban at an arm's length. Later, in the 1990s, he became the all-powerful defence minister in Burhanuddin Rabbani's cabinet. On September 9, 2001, two days before the terrorist attacks in America, Massoud was fatally injured in a suicide bombing by Al Qaeda at his residence by two men posing as journalists, with an explosive reportedly concealed in a video camera.