An image posted on social media by the Taliban showed its fighters at the governor's office of Panjshir province.
The Taliban said on Monday that the group has "completely captured" Panjshir, the last pocket of resistance in Afghanistan, even as opposition fighters vowed to keep up their struggle against the hardline Islamists.
Taliban forces have completely taken over control of Panjshir province north of Kabul, the Afghan capital, they said in a statement on Monday, TOLO News reported.
"Panjshir province, the last stronghold of the mercenary enemy, was completely conquered," Zabihullah Mujahid, which claims to be the official Twitter account of the spokesman of 'Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan', said in a tweet.
ولایت پنجشیر آخرین لانهء دشمن مزدور نیز به گونه کامل فتح گردید https://t.co/95ySJ5ppo6 pic.twitter.com/CCWKFt0zsb
— Zabihullah (..ذبـــــیح الله م ) (@Zabehulah_M33)An image posted on social media by the Taliban showed its fighters at the governor's office of Panjshir province.
First image: Taliban releases picture of its fighters at Bazarak, provincial capital of Panjshir Province. https://t.co/Bab6uPepse pic.twitter.com/3rS4qTzmUS
— Sidhant Sibal (@sidhant)However, the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan denied the report and took to Twitter to claim that the Taliban’s claim of occupying Panjshir is false.
"The NRF forces are present in all strategic positions across the valley to continue the fight. We assure the ppl of Afghanistan that the struggle against the Taliban & their partners will continue until justice & freedom prevails," the Front said from what was claimed to be its official Twitter handle.
Taliban’s claim of occupying Panjshir is false. The NRF forces are present in all strategic positions across the valley to continue the fight. We assure the ppl of Afghanistan that the struggle against the Taliban & their partners will continue until justice & freedom prevails.
— National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (@nrfafg)Earlier in the day, the last anti-Taliban forces in Afghanistan acknowledged that they had suffered major battlefield losses and called for a ceasefire.
Two of its senior leaders--Fahim Dashti, the front's spokesperson, and General Abdul Wudod Zara--were killed during the fighting with the Taliban.
The NRF includes local fighters loyal to Ahmad Massoud -- the son of the famous anti-Soviet and anti-Taliban commander Ahmad Shah Massoud -- as well as remnants of the Afghan military that retreated to the Panjshir Valley.
The group said in a tweet Sunday that NRF spokesman Fahim Dashty -- a well-known Afghan journalist -- and General Abdul Wudod Zara, a prominent military commander, had been killed in the latest fighting.
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