Partisan Resistance Is Brewing Against the Taliban, and Kabul Airport to Close for 48 Hours
The main conditions for resistance to the Taliban are decentralization and democracy. Otherwise, armed conflict will follow.
After radical Islamist Taliban seized power in Afghanistan, resistance forces began to grow in the country. They are now based in the northern province of Panjshir, which is still under the control of the internationally recognized Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, where Soviet troops in the 1980s were unable to defeat the mujahideen militia.
We briefly look at who is forming the new resistance forces, what conditions they are putting forward, and what has happened recently at Kabul airport.
National Resistance Front of Afghanistan
Former Afghan government forces, led by politician Ahmad Massoud, who served in the Afghan government, are forming a resistance movement in the fortified valley and are preparing for a “prolonged conflict,” while preferring to negotiate with the Taliban.
According to Ali Maisam Nazari, since the Taliban took control of the country, including the capital Kabul, thousands of people have headed to Panjshir to join the fight and find refuge.
The main goal of the National Resistance Front is to avoid further bloodshed in Afghanistan and to insist on a new system of governance based on the ideology of Islamic democracy.
However, the group is also ready for conflict, and if the Taliban do not agree to negotiations, they will face resistance across the entire country, a resistance representative said.
Ali Maisam Nazari
head of foreign affairs of the National Resistance FrontThe conditions for a peace agreement with the Taliban are decentralization, a system that ensures social justice, equality, rights and freedom for all. If the Taliban do not agree, a prolonged conflict will follow.
Although the Taliban control the vast majority of Afghanistan, Nazari optimistically emphasized reports that local militias in some areas have already begun to resist their harsh rule.
The National Resistance Front says Panjshir has become a safe zone for all groups that feel threatened in other provinces.
“The Taliban are overstretched. They cannot be everywhere at once. Their resources are limited. They do not have support among the majority,” Nazari noted.
According to Nazari, in addition to the combat forces of resistance leader Ahmad Massoud, numbering about nine thousand people, more than a thousand displaced persons from across Afghanistan are now in Panjshir, having rushed to the valley in search of refuge.
He added that the province is seeing an influx of intellectuals, activists for women’s rights and human rights, and politicians “who feel threatened by the Taliban.”
“War is only a byproduct of the conflict in Afghanistan. The cause of the conflict is that Afghanistan is a country made up of ethnic minorities. In a multiethnic country, one ethnic group must not be allowed to dominate politics while others are present only on the battlefield,” Nazari concluded.
The resistance is already calling on Western countries to supply them with weapons and ammunition.
Massoud told The Washington Post in an interview that the Taliban are not only a problem for the Afghan people: “Taliban control over Afghanistan will turn the country into the main stronghold of Islamic terrorism, and new attacks on democracy around the world will be prepared in Afghanistan.”
The Taliban, meanwhile, issued an ultimatum that resistance leader Ahmad Massoud surrender within four hours, otherwise the Taliban would launch an assault on the province and the entire Panjshir Valley. Massoud refused. No military action was reported afterward.
The situation at Kabul airport
US forces controlling Kabul airport will close it for 48 hours in order to evacuate people who are already there.
The humanitarian situation around Kabul airport has reached its peak and is unprecedented, as over the past seven days 12 people were shot or trampled to death in the crowd due to severe crushing.
The US and other countries have advised their citizens not to come to the airport now, as thousands of people have crowded the entrance in front of the main gates, making the evacuation process difficult.
It is reported that a new procedure has been planned for those who usually enter the airport, to be carried out with the help of taxi drivers who will take passengers directly to the boarding gates.
On the other hand, the US Pentagon said that American troops may also begin operations outside Kabul airport to rescue citizens.
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