Afghan envoy says hold-out Panjshir province can resist Taliban rule
DUSHANBE, Aug 18 (Reuters) - The Afghan ambassador to Tajikistan on Wednesday rejected Taliban rule of his country and said Panjshir province, north of Kabul, would serve as a stronghold for resistance led by self-proclaimed acting president Amrullah Saleh.
Afghan First Vice-President Saleh said on Tuesday he was the "legitimate caretaker president" of Afghanistan after President Ashraf Ghani fled the country as Taliban insurgents took the capital Kabul. read more
Saleh's whereabouts were unknown.
Ambassador Zahir Aghbar, a lieutenant general who held senior positions in Afghan state security including chief of police before becoming ambassador, blamed the defeat on Ghani and replaced his portrait in the embassy with one of Saleh.
"I cannot say that the Taliban have won the war. No, it was just Dr Ashraf Ghani who gave up power after treacherous talks with the Taliban," he told Reuters in an interview.
"And only Panjshir resists, led by Vice President Amrullah Saleh," he said. "Panjshir stands strong against anyone who wants to enslave people."
The narrow Panjshir valley is still littered with the remnants of armoured vehicles destroyed by the forces of the former Mujahideen leader Ahmad Shah Massoud during the Soviet invasion of the 1980s.
It also became a centre of the anti-Taliban resistance in the decade following and a key stronghold of the Northern Alliance that the United States supported to defeat the Taliban in 2001.
Afghan envoy says hold-out Panjshir province can resist Taliban rule
The Afghan ambassador to Tajikistan on Wednesday rejected Taliban rule of his country and said Panjshir province, north of Kabul, would serve as a stronghold for resistance led by self-proclaimed acting president Amrullah Saleh.
