Afghan Diplomat Says Two Opposition Figures Are Still In Panjshir, Continue To Fight Against The Taliban

JAKARTA - Afghan diplomats said two anti-Taliban opposition figures were still in the Panjshir area, continuing the resistance in the northern province of Afghanistan.

Panjshiri leader Ahmad Shah Massoud and former Afghan vice president Amrullah Saleh have not left Afghanistan and their insurgency forces are still fighting the Taliban, the ousted Afghan ambassador to Tajikistan Zahir Aghbar said Wednesday.

The envoy for Dushanbe under the government of ousted Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, told a news conference in the Tajikistan capital he was in regular contact with Saleh. And, resistance leaders do not communicate publicly for security reasons.

"Ahmad Massoud and Amrullah Saleh have not fled to Tajikistan. The news that Ahmad Massoud has left Panjshir is not true, he is inside Afghanistan," Aghbar said.

"I am in constant contact with Amrullah Saleh, who is currently in Panjshir and running the government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan," he continued.

Earlier, the Taliban claimed victory over opposition forces in the Panjshir valley northeast of Kabul, completing their takeover of Afghanistan on Monday.

Images on social media showed Taliban members standing in front of the gates of the governor's office complex of Panjshir Province, after fighting over the weekend with the Afghan National Resistance Front (NRFA), led by Panjshir leader Ahmad Massoud.

"Panjshir province completely falls to the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan," Taliban group spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said, in a Twitter post on Monday, adding that some enemy fighters had died in the fighting and others had fled.

"With this victory and the latest efforts, our country has come out of the vortex of war and our people will have a happy life in peace, liberty and freedom across the country." continued Mujahid.

In addition to taking pictures, members of the Taliban also waved the Taliban flag on the flagpole in the complex of the governor of Panjshir Province.

The Taliban assured the Panjshirs, who are ethnically distinct from the Pashtun-dominated Taliban and fought against the Taliban group during their 1996-2001 rule, that there would be no 'discriminatory action against them'.

"They are our brothers and will work together for the common goal and welfare of the country," said Mujahid.

There was no immediate word from Massoud, who leads a force made up of remnants of Afghanistan's regular army and special forces units and local militia fighters.

Meanwhile, Ali Maisam Nazary, head of foreign relations at NRFA, said the Taliban's claim of victory was false and that opposition forces were continuing to fight.

"NRF troops are present in all strategic positions throughout the valley to continue the fight," Nazary wrote on his Facebook page.