Afghanistan Crisis: Taliban send 'hundreds of fighters' to crush resistance stronghold in Panjshir Valley

Picture credit: PTI

Kabul: The Taliban has said that hundreds of its fighters are heading for the Panjshir Valley, which is currently the center of the resistance in Afghanistan.

Hundreds of "mujahideen" are heading towards the state of Panjshir to take control of the province from where the resistance is being held, Sputnik reported citing a news agency.

The Taliban entered Kabul last week after a months-long offensive, prompting the civilian government to collapse. 

After the fall of the Ashraf Ghani government, Panjshir remains the epicenter of the resistance led by Ahmad Massoud and Amrullah Saleh, the first vice president from Ghani`s cabinet.

According to the Russian news agency, members of the Taliban are waiting for an order to attack the holdout Panjshir province northeast of the Afghan capital of Kabul.

Earlier on Sunday, the Taliban offered Ahmad Massoud, the leader of the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan, to surrender. 

Meanwhile, Massoud said that they would not surrender and that the locals were ready to fight. 

Massoud also said that he and his supporters wanted a peaceful solution and were ready to negotiate an inclusive government with the Taliban, but the group declined the offer.

"If the Taliban try to seize control of Panjshir valley, resistance fighters will be ready to resist, the son of Ahmad Shah Massoud, one of the main leaders of Afghanistan’s anti-Soviet resistance in the 1980s," Ahmad Massoud told Al Arabiya. 

He added that he wants to bring the conflict to an end.

(With inputs from news agencies)