Afghan resistance forces based in Panjshir have denied the Taliban’s claim against the siege of the Shutul district of the province.
Kabul, Afghanistan, September 4 : At least 17 people were killed and 41 wounded in incidents of gun firing on Friday night in Kabul, Tolo News reported citing a hospital. “Emergency Hospital in Kabul said 17 bodies and 41 wounded people were transferred to its facility with the harm caused by last night’s citywide firing into the air,” Tolo News tweeted. Yesterday, “celebratory gunfire” was heard in Kabul amid conflicting reports over the situation in Panjshir valley where Taliban fighters are fighting rival forces for control of Afghanistan’s final holdout province, Tolo News reported. Heavy fighting is underway in Panjshir, the last Afghan province resisting rule by the Taliban. According to certain media reports, more than 300 fighters from both sides have lost their lives during the fighting over the past few days. Yesterday, the Taliban claimed that the province has fallen. However, the Northern Resistance Front has refuted the claim by the Taliban. “News of Panjshir conquests is circulating on Pakistani media. This is a lie,” said Ahmad Massoud, who is leading the rebels.
The Taliban have claimed they are now in control of entire Afghanistan. “By the grace of Allah Almighty, we are in control of entire Afghanistan. The troublemakers have been defeated and Panjshir is now under our command,” Reuters quoted a Taliban commander as saying.
Meanwhile, the Afghan resistance forces based in Panjshir have denied the Taliban’s claim against the siege of the Shutul district of the province.
Former Afghanistan Vice President Amrullah Saleh on Friday said that resistance against the Taliban will continue in Afghanistan’s Panjshir province.
“The RESISTANCE is continuing and will continue. I am here with my soil, for my soil & defending its dignity,” Saleh tweeted.
Speaking from Panjshir with TOLOnews, Amrullah Saleh, a commander of the Resistance Front in Panjshir, said that he was in Panjshir and that clashes between the Resistance Front and the Taliban were ongoing.
Earlier in a tweet, Saleh alleged that the Taliban are committing war crimes and “have zero respect for Human Rights of Afghans” in the war-torn country.
He also said that the Taliban have blocked humanitarian access to Panjshir while they are using “Military age men of Panjshir as mine clearance tools”.
In another recent development, Afghanistan local media has informed that Taliban co-founder Mullah Baradar will lead the upcoming government in the country.
Baradar, who heads the Taliban’s political office in Doha, will be joined by Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob, the son of late Taliban co-founder Mullah Omar, and Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai, in senior positions in the government, Tolo News reported citing sources from the Islamic group.
