The Taliban claims that the last part of the resistance in the country has been defeated, while the resistance movement says that the fighting continues.
A Taliban statement Monday morning Norwegian time said the Panjshirdalen district had been “completely occupied”.
“With this victory, our country will come out completely from the quagmire of war,” said Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid.
The region in northeastern Afghanistan has so far managed to stay out of Taliban control.
Pictures on social media now show Taliban fighters standing in front of what is supposed to be the Panjshir governor’s building, according to Reuters. The alleged invasion comes just over three weeks after the Taliban seized control of Kabul and Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, the resistance movement, the National Resistance Front, said on Monday morning that the fight against the Taliban in the province will continue, according to Al-Arabiya.
– The Taliban propaganda machinery continues to make the same claims that Panjshir has fallen – We saw last week that this is not true. A spokesman for the Front told the BBC that the opposite was happening – the National Resistance Front forced it to withdraw End of this week.
When the Taliban last ruled the country from 1996 to 2001, the Panjshir Valley was one of the areas they never controlled.
Request for a cease-fire
Government forces in the area on Monday night called for a ceasefire, according to AFP.
According to the news agency, the ceasefire proposal appears in a letter from the leader of the local resistance group.
This comes after the local government forces suffered heavy losses in fierce fighting with the Taliban at the end of the week.
According to AFP, the government forces’ proposal for the agreement is the Taliban’s withdrawal from Panjshir.
– In return, we will ask our forces to refrain from armed actions, as the resistance group says, after receiving reports of heavy losses in the fighting.
Already on Friday, the Taliban claimed to have invaded Panjshir, after launching a major attack on the province. The valley is the last home to the country’s remaining government forces, as well as to guerrilla groups that also oppose the Taliban regime.
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