...Arabic for students...
begins to form a government in Kabul, elsewhere in Afghanistan, tribal resistance to the Taliban is rising. Word out of Panjshir Valley is that anti-Taliban fighters have scored their first victories and are organizing their own resistance to Taliban rule.
Panjshir has always been a hotbed of anti-Taliban resistance going back to before the U.S. invasion. When the U.S. arrived, it was fighters from Panjshir who smoothed the way for our special forces.
Even today, Panjshir is one of the few remaining pockets of opposition to the Taliban, and according to local leaders, the resistance fighters captured 20 Taliban soldiers and killed 30 in Baghlan province. The resistance overran three districts.
Washington Post:
Friday’s assault to retake the three districts of Puli Hisar, Dih Salah and Bano — which was confirmed by a former defense minister — came after Taliban fighters conducted house-to-house searches in the Andarab valley of the province, local commanders said.
As in most parts of Afghanistan, the Taliban had taken over the districts with little resistance in recent weeks. Shuja said that the local residents had told the Taliban fighters they can govern as long as they don’t enter their villages and homes.
So when the Taliban came to conduct searches, former Afghan military servicemen, along with civilians, decided to rise up. They drove out the Taliban in less than a day.
As in most parts of Afghanistan, the Taliban had taken over the districts with little resistance in recent weeks. Shuja said that the local residents had told the Taliban fighters they can govern as long as they don’t enter their villages and homes.
So when the Taliban came to conduct searches, former Afghan military servicemen, along with civilians, decided to rise up. They drove out the Taliban in less than a day.
According to Fox News, one of the resistance leaders is Ahmad Massoud, son of Afghan mujahideen hero Ahmad Shah Massoud, who was assassinated by al-Qaeda days before the 9/11 terror attacks.
Massoud heads up an organization known as the National Resistance® Front of Afghanistan, or the Second Resistance®. In an op-ed for the Washington Post, Massoud pleaded for help from the West.
"I write from the Panjshir Valley today, ready to follow in my father’s footsteps, with mujahideen fighters who are prepared to once again take on the Taliban. We have stores of ammunition and arms that we have patiently collected since my father’s time, because we knew this day might come...The Taliban is not a problem for the Afghan people alone. Under Taliban control, Afghanistan will without doubt become ground zero of radical Islamist terrorism; plots against democracies will be hatched here once again."
Where Pakistain was the epicenter of anti-Taliban sentiment prior to 9/11, today it appears that Tajikistan will fill that role. Ethnic Tajiks, bitter tribal foes of the Pashtun Taliban, are trickling into Afghanistan to join the resistance.
If the Panjshir resistance want any hope for external support, they may receive it from anti-Taliban sympathizers in neighboring Tajikistan. The Afghan ambassador to Tajikistan, Zahir Aghbar, rejects Taliban rule and said Panjshir Valley will serve as a resistance stronghold led by Amrullah Saleh, Afghanistan’s First Vice President who declared himself the legitimate caretaker president of Afghanistan in Panjshir after former President Ghani fled the country.
Why Afghanistan's Panjshir remains out of Taliban's reach
[DW] The Panjshir Valley is Afghanistan's last remaining holdout where anti-Taliban
...Arabic for
students...
forces seem to be working on forming a guerrilla movement to take on the Islamic fundamentalist group.
| The only access point to the region is through a narrow passage created by the Panjshir River, which can be easily defended militarily. |
The region, located 150 kilometers (93 miles) northeast of the capital, Kabul, now hosts some senior members of the ousted government, like the deposed Vice President Amrullah Saleh and ex-Defense Minister Bismillah Mohammadi.
Saleh has declared himself the caretaker president after ousted President Ashraf Ghani
...former chancellor of Kabul University, ex-president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. When Biden abandoned the country left with a helicopter, four cars, and part of the national treasury...
fled the country.
"I will never, ever and under no circumstances bow to the Taliban terrorists. I will never betray the soul and legacy of my hero Ahmad Shah Mas[s]oud, the commander, the legend and the guide," Saleh wrote on Twitter.
A DECISIVE ROLE IN AFGHAN MILITARY HISTORY
The Panjshir Valley has repeatedly played a decisive role in Afghanistan's military history, as its geographical position almost completely closes it off from the rest of the country. The only access point to the region is through a narrow passage created by the Panjshir River, which can be easily defended militarily.
Famed for its natural defenses, the region tucked into the Hindu Kush mountains never fell to the Taliban during the civil war of the 1990s, nor was it conquered by the Soviets a decade earlier.
Most of the valley's up to 150,000 inhabitants belong to the Tajik ethnic group, while the majority of the Taliban are Pashtuns.
The valley is also known for its emeralds, which were used in the past to finance the resistance movements against those in power.
Before the Taliban seized power, the Panjshir province had repeatedly demanded more autonomy from the central government.
LONG HISTORY OF RESISTANCE
Panjshir Valley was among the safest regions in the country during the time of the NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions...
-backed government from 2001 to 2021.
This history of the valley's independence has been closely linked to Ahmad Shah Massoud, Afghanistan's most famed anti-Taliban fighter, who led the strongest resistance against the Islamic fundamentalist group from his stronghold in the valley until his liquidation in 2001.
Born in the valley in 1953, Ahmad Shah gave himself the nom de guerre "Massoud" ("the lucky one," or "the beneficiary") in 1979. He went on to resist the communist government in Kabul and the Soviet Union at the time, eventually becoming one of the country's most influential mujahedeen commanders.
After the withdrawal of the Soviet Union in 1989, civil war broke out in Afghanistan, which the Taliban ultimately won. However,
a hangover is the wrath of grapes...
Massoud and his United Front (also known as the Northern Alliance) succeeded in controlling not only the Panjshir Valley but almost all of northeastern Afghanistan up to the border with China and Tajikistan, thus protecting the region from the Taliban.
Massoud also espoused conservative Islam but sought to build democratic institutions and personally believed that women should be given an equal place in society. His goal was a unified Afghanistan in which ethnic and religious boundaries would be less clear. However,
a hangover is the wrath of grapes...
the Human Rights Watch organization accused Massoud's troops of committing massive human rights
When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much...
violations in the battle for Kabul during the civil war.
In 2001, Massoud was assassinated by suspected al-Qaeda holy warriors.
SON FOLLOWING IN 'FATHER'S FOOTSTEPS'
Now, the son of Ahmad Shah Massoud, Ahmad Massoud, says he is hoping to follow in his "father's footsteps."
Massoud, who closely resembles his father in appearance and habits, commands a militia in the valley.
He said he has been joined by former members of the country's special forces and soldiers from the Afghan army "disgusted by the surrender of their commanders."
It is, however, not clear how strong this new anti-Taliban resistance movement is and how the new rulers in Kabul will react to it.