NRF says 60 percent of Afghanistan’s Panjshir still under control, Ahmad Massoud and Amrullah Saleh alive
The NRF has also refuted claims of losing ground in Panjshir saying that 60 percent of Panjshir is still under the NRF control. Spokesman Nazary said they made a ‘tactical withdrawal’ from the main road and would soon return
File image of Afghan resistance movement and anti-Taliban uprising forces take rest as they patrol on a hilltop in Darband area in Panjshir province. AFP
Afghanistan’s last resistance group, the National Resistance Front (NRF), denounced on Wednesday the Taliban’s new interim government as “illegitimate” and destined for “pariah” status, after its leader Ahmad Massoud called for a nationwide uprising against the country’s Islamist rulers.
As per an India Today report, Ali Maisam Nazary, head of foreign relations, NRF, and spokesperson for Ahmad Massoud said, “Both Commander Ahmad Massoud and Amrullah Saleh are very much in Afghanistan. They are in the country. They will never abandon their people. People are rising and taking on the terrorists who are now in Kabul.”
The NRF has also refuted claims of losing ground in Panjshir saying that 60 percent of Panjshir is still under the NRF control. Spokesman Nazary said they made a ‘tactical withdrawal’ from the main road and would soon return.
As per a Hindustan Times article, Nazary told CNN that the Taliban have suffered heavy casualties.
“The current situation in Pajshir is a hit more complex than what is being reported. The Taliban haven’t taken the province, they have only taken the main road and the provincial centre is located near the main road. So this is why they were able to hoist their flag,” Nazary said on CNN Connect.
Led by the son of legendary resistance fighter Ahmad Shah Massoud — who was assassinated in 2001 by Al-Qaeda two days before the September 11 attacks — the National Resistance Front (NRF) remains defiant despite losing control of the Panjshir valley, the group’s spokesman said.
Nazary spoke to AFP after the Taliban announced an interim government made up of loyalist hardliners. “The narrative of a modern Taliban is over… there is no Taliban in favour of an inclusive government,” he said.
According to sources, the NRF is trying to establish a parallel government in Afghanistan to oust the Taliban. “The resistance front acknowledged that they will establish a transitional democratic and legitimate government which is forged based on the votes of people and is acceptable to the international community,” the resistance front was quoted by Khaama news as saying in a statement.
With agency inputs
