New Delhi: Amid Taliban's claim of National Resistance Front leader Ahmad Massoud fleeing to Tajikistan, some media reports say he has not left Afghanistan. "Rumours about Massoud leaving Afghanistan for Turkey or any other place are false. The resistance leader is in a safe place and is in contact with the Panjshir Valley," the Fars news agency report quoted a source as saying.
Earlier, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid had told the media that he was told that Massoud, and former vice president Amrullah Saleh, have escaped to neighbouring Tajikistan.
In an audio message sent to the media on September 6, Massoud, who leads the resistance movement in Panjshir valley, had called for a "national uprising" against the Taliban. "Wherever you are, inside or outside, I call on you to begin a national uprising for the dignity, freedom and prosperity of our country," Massoud said in his message. Refuting Taliban's claim of complete takeover of the valley, he said the movement will fight till its last breath to save the population of around 1.75 lakh.
Read:Resistance forces seek end to war as Taliban claim control of Panjshir
Some media reports quoted sources as saying that 70 per cent of main streets and passages have been brought under control by the Taliban, but the valleys of Panjshir are still under the complete control of the popular forces. Panjshir is the only province that remains out of the Taliban's reach since the Islamic group's seizure of power in Afghanistan two weeks before the US was set to complete its troop withdrawal from the war-torn country.
In a statement recently posted on Facebook, Ahmad Massoud had said they are ready to cease fighting and start negotiations if the Taliban would withdraw their forces from Panjshir and Andarab. "The National Resistance Front fully supports the call of the honorable scholars to remove the compensation on Panjshir and hopes that the Taliban will take this Islamic and humanitarian demand seriously...We agree to solve the current problems and to stop the war and continue the process of negotiations and hopes that the Taliban will take practical steps to the demand of the honorable scholars. We are ready to stop the war immediately in order to achieve stable peace if the Taliban ends its military attacks and movements in Panjshir and Andarab," his statement read.
