EXCLUSIVE | I'm Calling From Inside Panjshir, Haven't Fled Anywhere: Afghanistan's Ex-VP Amrullah Saleh Axes Rumours

Afghanistan?s ?acting? President Amrullah Saleh has told CNN-News18 that he is inside the Panjshir valley and with commanders and political figures of the resistance, amid reports that the region had fallen to the Taliban.

Calling the reports ?absolutely baseless?, Saleh said the Panjshir valley had been under attack by the Taliban and other forces since four to five days, but that no territory had been captured by the insurgents.

?There are some media reports being circulated around that I have fled my country. This is absolutely baseless. This is my voice, I am calling you from the Panjshir valley, from my base. I am with our commanders and our political leaders,? said Saleh.

Talking about the attack from the Taliban, Saleh said: ?We are managing the situation. Of course, it?s a difficult situation, We are under the invasion of the Taliban and Pakistanis and Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups. We have held the ground, we have not lost territory.?

?Over the past four-five days that the Taliban have launched their offensive, they have not been able to have any significant gain. They have suffered casualties, we have suffered casualties too,? he added.

The deposed Vice President had vowed to ?never bow down to the Taliban? even as former President Ashraf Ghani had left a night before the militant group took over Kabul, leaving the country in the hands of the Taliban.

Some media reports have claimed that Saleh along with Panjshir commanders had fled the last remaining hotbed of resistance against the Taliban yesterday, in two planes.

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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