KABUL: The Taliban on Wednesday said that the negotiations with the leaders of the Panjshir province have gone in vain as it is the only province that is still out of the Taliban’s reach in the country, a media report said.
Taliban’s commission for guidance and encouragement’s head Mullah Amir Khan Motaqi said that negotiations with the tribal elders and leaders failed and asked the people of Panjshir province to motivate their leaders, Afghanistan’s Khaama Press reported.
The Panjshir valley lies in the Hindu Kush mountains, approximately 90 miles north of Kabul. The Taliban have been unable to take this major holdout of resistance after steamrolling across pro-government troops in a matter of months.
“This is the first time in the recent history of Afghanistan that a newly appointed government announces general amnesty and why should the people of Panjshir still be in trouble and they do not avail themselves of the freedom,” Khaama Press quoted Motaqi as saying.
Ahmad Massoud (the son of famous Afghan commander Ahmad Shah Massoud and one of the leaders of the resistance against the Taliban) and Amrullah Saleh (former Afghan government first vice president) are presently in Panjshir valley and trying to mount a challenge to the Taliban.
Motaqi has stressed that the occupation has ended and it is the great pride for entire Afghanistan but people in Panjshir province are still against the Taliban.
He also asked the people of Panjshir to not allow those who are favoring war in the region.
On August 15, the Taliban captured Kabul soon after President Ashraf Ghani fled the nation. So far, the Taliban have controlled all the regions apart from the Panjshir province.
Taliban’s new government
It is reported that Taliban to announce new Afghan government in coming days The Taliban and other Afghan leaders on Wednesday stated that they have reached a “consensus” on the formation of a new government and cabinet under the leadership of the group’s top spiritual leader.
Taliban supreme commander Haibatullah Akhundzada will be the top leader of any governing council, Bilal Karimi, a member of the group’s cultural commission said Wednesday. Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, one of Akhundzada’s three deputies and the main public face of the Taliban, is likely to be in charge of the daily functioning of the government, Karimi added.
“The consultation on forming an inclusive Afghan government within the Islamic Emirate’s leaders, with the leaders from previous government and other influential leaders have officially ended,” Mr Karimi said. “They have reached a consensus. We’re about to announce a functioning cabinet and government in a few days, not weeks.”
Another report said that Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers were preparing on Thursday to unveil their new government as the economy teetered on the edge of collapse, more than two weeks after the group captured Kabul and brought a chaotic end to 20 years of war.
Taliban official Ahmadullah Muttaqi said on social media a ceremony was being prepared at the presidential palace in Kabul, while private broadcaster Tolo said an announcement on a new government was imminent.
The movement’s supreme leader, Haibatullah Akhundzada, is expected to have ultimate power over a governing council with a president below him, a senior Taliban official told Reuters last month.
The legitimacy of the new government in the eyes of international donors and investors will be crucial for Afghanistan’s economy, which is likely to collapse following the Taliban’s return to power, analysts said.
The supreme Taliban leader has three deputies: Mawlavi Yaqoob, son of the movement’s late founder Mullah Omar; Sirajuddin Haqqani, leader of the powerful Haqqani network; and Abdul Ghani Baradar, one of the founding members of the group.
An unelected leadership council is how the Taliban ran their first government which brutally enforced a radical form of Sharia law from 1996 until its ouster by US-led forces in 2001.
The Taliban have tried to present a more moderate face to the world since they swept aside the US-backed government and returned to power last month, promising to protect human rights and refrain from reprisals against old enemies.
But the United States, the European Union and others have cast doubt on such assurances, saying formal recognition of the new government — and the economic aid that would flow from that — is contingent on action.
“We’re not going to take them at their word, we’re going to take them at their deeds,” US Undersecretary of State Victoria Nuland told a news briefing on Wednesday. “So they’ve got a lot to prove based on their own track record … now they also have a lot to gain, if they can run Afghanistan, far, far differently than they did the last time they were in power.”