Panjshir Resistance calls for ceasefire, Taliban withdrawal: Report

Kabul, Sep 06: Panjshir Resistance has called for a ceasefire, Taliban withdrawal, as per a statement, news agency AFP reported.

"The NRF in principle agree to solve the current problems and put an immediate end to the fighting and continue negotiations," Ahmad Massoud, head of the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (NRFA), said in the Facebook post.

"To reach a lasting peace, the NRF is ready to stop fighting on condition that Taliban also stop their attacks and military movements on Panjshir and Andarab," he said, referring to a district in the neighbouring province of Baghlan.

The Taliban stepped up an assault on the last remaining pocket of resistance being led by fighters opposed to their rule.

The anti-Taliban fighters in Panjshir province, north of the Afghan capital, are being led by former vice president Amrullah Saleh, who has appealed for humanitarian aid to help the thousands of people displaced by the fighting.

A senior Taliban spokesman tweeted Sunday that Taliban troops had overrun Rokha district, one of largest of eight districts in Panjshir. Several Taliban delegations have attempted negotiations with the holdouts there, but talks have failed to gain traction.

Saleh fled to Panjshir after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani quit Afghanistan as the Taliban marched on the capital. The fighters'' lightning blitz across the country took less than a week to overrun some 300,000 government troops, most of whom surrendered or fled.

Since their takeover, the Taliban have sought to recast themselves as different from their 1990s incarnation, when they last ruled the country and imposed repressive restrictions across society. Women and girls were denied work and education, men were forced to grow beards, and television and music were banned.

Now, the world is waiting to see the face of the new government, and many Afghans remain skeptical.

with PTI inputs