Taliban claim breakthrough in Afghan resistance haven

Islamist group breaks up women’s protest in Kabul, firing teargas and bullets in the air.

A Taliban fighter keeps an eye on people waiting to withdraw money from a bank in Kabul’s Shar-e-Naw neighborhood on Saturday. Picture: AFP

The Taliban claimed to have entered the Panjshir Valley, the only remaining area of armed resistance to their rule in Afghanistan, as they continued talks on the formation of a new government.

The Taliban’s claim late on Saturday comes ahead of a visit by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin to Qatar, where they expect to discuss safe passage for Afghans seeking to flee the country as well as human rights issues, including those of Afghan women.

On Saturday, the Taliban roughly broke up a protest by women in Kabul. Panjshir, a valley protected by a ring of mountains, is the only part of the country the Taliban didn’t conquer in a lightning blitz that culminated with their capture of Kabul on August 15.

The Taliban posted a video on Saturday showing what it said was its fighters, in seized US-supplied Humvees, on a mountain road in Panjshir.

A resistance supporter confirmed the setback, saying the Taliban had entered Panjshir from both the south and the north.

Emergency, an Italy-based non-governmental organisation, said the Taliban had reached the village of Anabah, Panjshir, where it runs medical centre. It said it had received a small number of wounded at the facility, which is continuing its work.

Officially, however, the rebels denied that the Taliban had made inroads. When the last Taliban regime was in power from 1996 to 2001, it failed to enter Panjshir, where the resistance was then led by Ahmad Shah Massoud. His son, Ahmad, who has no previous experience of fighting, is the current leader of the rebels. Panjshir, home to the country’s Tajik ethnic minority, also held out against the Soviet invasion of the 1980s.

“We will never stop fighting, struggling for God, freedom and justice,” Mr Massoud said in a post on Facebook on Saturday.

In Kabul, Taliban fighters and some supporters celebrated the development by shooting in the air, causing casualties. Two hospitals said they had received a total of two dead and about 16 injured.

Separately, women have staged several protests since the Taliban cemented their takeover, including in the remote southwestern province of Nimroz and the western city of Herat.

When the Taliban was last in power, women were banned from education and couldn’t leave the house without a male escort.

This time, the Taliban has tried to project a more moderate image regarding women, pledging to respect their rights within the limits of Islam but without explaining what those limits would be. It has said women should stay home until their fighters are educated and sensitised to women’s rights, but hasn’t offered any timeframe.

In a protest on Saturday in Kabul, a small group of women held placards, one of which read “We are not women of the 90s”. “Taliban, Taliban: The violators of women’s rights” and “With the weapons of education and knowledge, we defend our rights,” read other banners.

March organiser Razia Barakzai said when protesters neared the finance ministry, the Taliban blocked their way and started beating them, firing teargas and bullets in the air. One of them was injured seriously.

“We want our rights, our equal rights like other human beings. We want to have participation in politics and social affairs,” she said.

The Taliban is still in talks on forming a new government. Mr Blinken said the US wanted to see the Taliban establish a government that included other Afghan factions and that refrained from reprisals against opponents.

Mr Blinken, who arrives on Sunday night in Qatar, has said Washington also wanted the Taliban to allow freedom to travel for Afghans.

“We continue to maintain channels of communication with the Taliban on issues that are important to us,” he said. US officials said Mr Blinken didn’t have plans to meet with the Taliban in Qatar, where the group has its political office.

Mr Austin will visit Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.

Washington is working with Qatar and Turkey to reopen the airport, which would enable more Afghans to leave the country. Mr Blinken said out of the 124,000 people evacuated in the second half of August, 75 to 80 per cent were Afghans at risk from the Taliban.

On Saturday, the head of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency, Faiz Hameed, arrived in Kabul. Western governments, have accused Islamabad of supporting the Taliban, charges it denies. Islamabad is concerned that it will face a wave of refugees, and it is also worried about anti-Pakistan extremists in Afghanistan.

Western governments have asked for Pakistan’s help in getting remaining citizens and at-risk Afghans out of Afghanistan.

The Wall Street Journal