Afghanistan’s ‘acting’ president Amrullah Saleh has fled to Tajikistan amid growing pressure from the Taliban against the last hotbed of resistance Panjshir valley, reports say.
EXCLUSIVE | I’m Calling From Inside Panjshir, Haven’t Fled Anywhere: Afghanistan’s Ex-VP Amrullah Saleh Axes Rumours
A report by Times Now says that according to the Taliban sources, Saleh fled with commanders of Panjshir in two planes yesterday.
The news of Saleh quitting Afghanistan comes just a day after he declared that the Panjshir-based opposition to the Taliban will continue to defend the rights of all Afghan civilians. The deposed Vice President had said he would ‘never bow down’ to the Taliban, even as former President Ashraf Ghani had fled the night before the insurgent group had taken over Kabul.
Following his alleged departure from the nation, Saleh took to Twitter to emphasise the people of Panjshir’s horrible experiences.
“Talibs have blocked humanitarian access to Panjshir, do racial profile of travelers, use military age men of Panjhsir as mine clearance tools walking them on mine fields, have shut phone, electricity & not allow medicine either. People can only carry small amount of cash,” he said on Twitter.
“Over the past 23 years since start of the Emergency Hospital we never blocked Talib access to it. Talibs are committing war crimes & have zero respect for IHL. We call on UN & world leaders to take notice of this clear criminal & terrorist behavior of the Talibs,” he added.
CNN-News18 had earlier reported that Panjshir has now been cut off from the world as the insurgents have disconnected their telephone and internet services.
Sources had said the Taliban has cut off telephone and internet services in the area to stop internal communication between the forces of the second resistance formed after the insurgent group took over Afghanistan in a rapid blitz of cities and provincial capitals mid-August.
The Taliban wants to stop former Vice President Amrullah Salleh from creating any form of awareness against the militant group or talk about a nexus between the Taliban and Haqqani network in the devastating Kabul airport blast that took place Thursday.
The sources had revealed that the Taliban feel Amrullah’s knowledge may supersede intelligence information as he was in the government, adding that the group also believes attacking Panjshir would be easier in the lack of communication in the valley.
Panjshir: Hotbed of Resistance
The Panjshir valley is one of the the last remaining hotbeds of resistance in Afghanistan at the moment. Saleh, accompanied by Ahmad Massoud, the son of assassinated military commander and former Minister of Defense of the Islamic State of Afghanistan Ahmad Shah Massoud, had both taken refuge in the area and called for an uprising against the Taliban.
The Panjshir valley plays a crucial role in this uprising against the Taliban, who now wreck havoc against citizens, despite their assurances of being ‘moderate’ in their rule.
Saleh was born in Panjshir in 1972 to a Tajik family, was orphaned at a young age. He was raised in the heart of where the resistance began under the leader of the resistance, Ahmad Shah Massoud, and joined the movement at a young age. The leader’s sister was tortured to death by Taliban fighters in 1996, according to reports. “What happened in 1996 changed my perception of the Taliban permanently,” Saleh wrote in an editorial for Time magazine. He fought alongside his leader and as part of the Northern Alliance to take down the Taliban.
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