Taliban does not want any bloodshed in Panjshir, hope for a peaceful solution
New Delhi, Aug 22 (IANS) The Taliban has asked Russia to convey to the remaining resistance forces in the Panjshir Valley that it wants a peaceful solution. A representative of the Taliban’s political office visited the Russian embassy in Kabul on Saturday. He asked Russian diplomats to inform the leaders of the remaining resistance center in Panjshir that they were looking for talks and a peaceful solution. Moscow’s ambassador to Afghanistan Dmitry Zhirnov gave this information to the YouTube channel Soloyev Live.
“Today we had a representative of the Taliban’s political office at the embassy. Knowing that Russia has a great reputation with various political forces in Afghanistan, they asked us to give a political signal to Panjshir,” he said. “They asked us to send the following message to Panjshir leaders and people that the Taliban has not made a single attempt to enter Panjshir so far. The group hopes to find a peaceful solution to the situation. The Taliban do not want bloodshed and to negotiate. committed to.
The Panjshir Valley is the last remaining base in Afghanistan where anti-Taliban forces are working on a guerrilla movement to deal with the Islamic fundamentalist group. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said there was resistance to the Taliban in Afghanistan’s Panjshir Valley under the leadership of Vice President Amrullah Saleh and Ahmed Masood, the son of a famous anti-Taliban fighter. “The Taliban do not have control over the entire territory of Afghanistan,” Lavrov told reporters at a news conference in Moscow after a meeting with his Libyan counterpart.
The Panjshir Valley, northeast of Kabul, is Afghanistan’s last remaining holdout, known for its natural defenses. DW reported that the area, located 150 meters northeast of the capital Kabul, now hosts some senior members of the deposed government, such as Saleh and former Defense Minister Bismillah Mohammadi. Saleh has declared himself acting president after ousted President Ashraf Ghani fled the country. The Panjshir Valley has repeatedly played a decisive role in Afghanistan’s military history, as its geographical location makes it almost completely cut off from the rest of the country.
The only access point to the region is through a narrow passage formed by the Panjshir River, which can be easily avoided militarily. Known for its natural defenses, the region in the Hindu Kush mountains never fell into the hands of the Taliban during the 1990 civil war, nor was it conquered by the Soviet Union a decade earlier, and is now Afghanistan, reports DW. The last remaining holdout of