LONDON, September 3. /TASS/. Afghanistan’s former Vice President Amrullah Saleh, who proclaimed himself "caretaker president" after the Taliban (outlawed in Russia) seized power in Afghanistan, said on Friday he is still in the Panjshir province, which steadfastly refuses to recognize Taliban authority.
In an audio message to the BBC, Saleh refuted media reports that he had fled the country. He said he is still in Panjshir, along with the military command and other political leaders.
"The reports concerning my escape from Afghanistan are totally baseless," he said in a video posted by BBC World News journalist Yalda Hakim on her Twitter account.
According to Saleh, "the situation is difficult" but the Taliban are failing to win control of the province. "The resistance is not going to surrender," he stressed, adding that both sides are sustaining losses.
After abortive talks between the Taliban and the National Resistance Front, Taliban fighters staged an offensive on Panjshir early this week. Fahim Dashti, spokesman for the resistance movement, told TASS on Thursday that the Taliban had failed to seize any of the outposts in the region. According to Dashti, about 350 Taliban militants were killed. He did not say how many casualties there were on the side of the resistance. The Taliban, however, have said nothing about their losses. Now and then they report on successful advances in Panjshir and announce their intention to take the province under their control "in the near future."
After the Biden administration announced the end of its US military operation in Afghanistan and the launch of its troop pullout, the Taliban embarked on an offensive against Afghan government forces. On August 15, Taliban fighters swept into Kabul without encountering any resistance, and gained full control over the Afghan capital within a few hours. Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani said he had stepped down to prevent any bloodshed and subsequently fled the country. Vice President Amrullah Saleh said that under the constitution, he becomes "the caretaker president" in the absence of the president and called for armed resistance against the Taliban.
The northern province of Panjshir is the only pocket of resistance to the Taliban. It is led by Ahmad Massoud, a son of Ahmad Shah Massoud (1953-2001), a once influential leader of Afghanistan’s Tajik community who fought against the Taliban back in the 1990s.