‘No one left’: Afghanistan’s Panjshir is now the realm of ghost cities and outdated males

Fighters in Afghanistan’s Panjshir vowed to battle the Taliban to the final man, however practically two weeks after the hardline Islamists celebrated victory, components of the rugged valley lie empty and deserted.

In many villages, solely outdated males and livestock stay.Sitting underneath the awning of a closed store, Abdul Ghafoor contemplates his abandoned village, perched on the facet of a rocky hill within the district of Khenj.”Before, almost 100 families lived here,” he mentioned. “There are only three left now. Everyone has left.”Most had fled south to the capital Kabul earlier than the Taliban swept in final month, he mentioned.Further up the valley at Malaspa, alongside a strip of inexperienced alongside the tumbling river, villagers as soon as met to share gossip and information.Now solely a donkey and Khol Mohammad — aged 67 and limping with a foul leg — stay in Malaspa with just a few others left within the neighborhood.”A few families stayed, but some 80 others all left,” he mentioned.It is identical story in village after village visited by AFP, travelling by three of the hardest-hit of the province’s seven districts.ALSO READ | Resources drying up, Panjshir bastion of Afghan resistance forces stares at starvation disaster‘NO ONE LEFT’A couple of retailers or stalls, primarily bakeries, are nonetheless open however the markets — normally crowded with merchants and clients — principally lie empty.”There is no one left, except the elders, and the poor who cannot afford to leave,” mentioned Abdul Wajid, 30, who stayed behind to look at over the household dwelling.The solely folks busy are the heavily-armed Taliban gunmen who now lay declare to a lot of the mountain valley. Taliban fighters stand subsequent to ammunition alongside a highway in Malaspa space, Bazark district, Panjshir province (AFP photograph)They guard roadblocks or patrol the dusty roads in pickup vans seized as spoils of battle throughout their lightning rout of presidency forces.Panjshir fighters earned a legendary fame for resistance, defending their mountain properties first from the Soviet navy for a decade, then all through a civil battle, then the final Taliban regime from 1996-2001.The 115-kilometre-long (70-mile-long) valley surrounded by jagged snow-capped peaks gives defenders a pure navy benefit.ALSO READ | Panjshir bombed by Pakistani Air Force drones: ReportsCRUSHING DEFEATBut the Taliban had been emboldened by their sweeping victories throughout the remainder of the nation, the place they seized an infinite arsenal of weapons and navy equipment that the now-departed US supplied to the defeated Afghan military. A burnt down Humvee alongside a highway in Dashtak in Panjshir province, Afghanistan (AFP photograph)Several Panjshir leaders, together with Ahmad Massoud — the son of the late veteran fighter Ahmad Shah Massoud — vowed by no means to give up to the Taliban.They put up some battle, with the proof of their resistance within the twisted and charred stays of Taliban armoured autos and pickups.But the Taliban, outnumbering the Panjshiri fighters and a lot better geared up, shrugged off the losses to energy up the valley.Earlier this month the Taliban declared victory, hoisting their white flag.It is unclear what stays of the resistance and whether or not its leaders are even nonetheless within the nation.ALSO READ | Afghanistan disaster: Bloodshed in Panjshir valley as Taliban kill 20 peopleHUMAN SHIELDS?The arrival of the Taliban was brutal, residents say.”They shot dead a driver behind the wheel of his car, and a father who had gone to look for food for his children,” mentioned an elder, saying he noticed the stays close to the village of Khenj.Other Panjshiris say they counted 19 killings of civilians — separate from these killed in crossfire exchanged with opposition forces — between the villages of Khenj and Bazarak, experiences not possible to confirm and denied by the Taliban.In this conservative valley, many say the presence of Taliban troopers is seen as intrusive and unwelcome.”How do you expect us to leave our family here, when the Taliban are at the end of the garden?” mentioned Haji Mohammad Younus, 75, within the practically abandoned village of Omerz.”People no longer feel free, and prefer to go to Kabul.”Residents say the Taliban have arrange roadblocks to cease folks from leaving, with the Islamists reportedly asking folks to carry relations again dwelling.”We tell people that they can come back to their homes and that they will not be bothered,” one Taliban commander in Khenj market mentioned.Still, AFP noticed a truck loaded with mattresses and furnishings turned again after attempting to depart Panjshir.One elder mentioned the Taliban needed folks to remain to guard them from assaults.”The Taliban prefer that villagers remain, in order to have human shields and not be bombarded by the resistance,” he mentioned.WATCH | Taliban’s Panjshir takeover: Ambassador Masood Khalili, Ahmad Shah Massoud’s key aide, hopes for inclusivity