Taliban invade Amrullah Saleh's place in Panjshir, brother shot: Report
A video of a Taliban fighter holding a gun and posing for a photograph exactly where Amrullah Saleh was seen sitting in his latest video message has been floated on social media.
With heave clashes still going on in Afghanistan's Panjshir Valley, multiple reports claimed that Amrullah Saleh's elder brother Rohullah Saleh was killed as he was leaving Panjshir for Kabul. Reports said he was identified as Amrullah Saleh's brother and was tortured to death. The report comes as a photo of a Taliban fighter sitting on the same spot from where Amrullah Saleh issued a video statement asserting that he was still in Panjshir was spread on social media indicating that the Taliban have taken over the library of the place where Amrullah Saleh was residing. Hindustan Times has not individually verified the claims.
Though the Taliban claimed victory over Panjshir on several occasions before, the clashes were going n between the Taliban and the Northern Resistance Front. Reports said the Resistance Front gave Panjshir families three days' time to leave the province as they were preparing for another round of fighting. The Taliban too reportedly agreed to allow safe passage to Panjshir residents, it has been reported.
Both the Taliban and the opposition witnessed massive loss in the ongoing strike, which the Resistance Front alleged was being done in collusion with Pakistan. The former spokesperson of the National Resistance Front Fahim Dashty was killed last Sunday. For the last few days, people have been leaving Panjshir after the war escalated. Those who have fled to Kabul told Tolo News that people in Panjshir will die of hunger as the Taliban have blocked all humanitarian assistance in the province.
Amid reports of Amrullah Saleh, the former vice president of Afghanistan and the leader of the Panjshir Resistance, fleeing the country, Saleh recently released a video from Panjshir claiming that he was there and did not flee.
On Wednesday, a day after the Taliban announced the interim government, the ousted Afghan government's ambassador to Tajikistan confirmed that both Massoud and Amrullah Saleh were in Afghanistan and not in Tajikistan, as claimed by the Taliban. "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. I am in constant contact with Amrullah Saleh, who is currently in Panjshir and running the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan's government," Zahir Aghbar, envoy to Dushanbe under the government of ousted Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said.