Ahmad Massoud’s son appeals for assistance to resist Taliban

Sandeep Dikshit

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 19

Clashes were reported just outside the mouth of Panjshir Valley while one of the leaders of the resistance against Taliban and a Panjshiri, Ahmad Massoud, wrote an op-ed in a US paper saying his forces “need more weapons, more ammunition and more supplies”.

“America can still be a great arsenal of democracy” by supporting his fighters, wrote Massoud, the son of “Lion of Panjshir Valley” Ahmad Shah Massoud who was assassinated by the Al-Qaida as a favour to the Taliban in 2001.

Massoud said that, after 20 years, the US and Afghanistan had shared “ideals and struggles”. The US should support the “cause of freedom” rather than abandon Afghans to the Taliban. “You are our only remaining hope,” he said.

There were conflicting reports about clashes taking place at Charikar which is within striking distance of the Bagram military airport. But it was confirmed that remnants of Uzbek leader Abdul Rashid Dostum’s militia, which had been defeated in Balkh, had arrived in Panjshir Valley. Social media has shown Afghanistan’s First Vice-President Amrullah Saleh, who has declared himself President of Afghanistan, meeting with Massoud while some other pictures showed a congregation of fighters labelled as belonging to the Uzbek and Saleh-Massod camps.

Massoud and Saleh might be going against the current since most major powers have said the war is over while many Afghans on social media are appealing to the Panjshir leaders not to plunge the country into a civil war. But Saleh remains defiant. In a dig at the Pakistan-assisted takeover, he said: “Nations must respect the rule of law, not violence. Afghanistan is too big for Pakistan to swallow and too big for Talibs to govern. Don’t let your histories have a chapter on humiliation and bowing to terror groups.”