Afghanistan:Panjshir resistance forces call for ceasefire

The leader of the Afghan opposition group resisting Taliban forces in the Panjshir valley north of Kabul said on Sunday he welcomed proposals from religious scholars for a negotiated settlement to end the fighting.  Both sides have reportedly suffered massive casualties in the violent clashes over the past few days. Ahmad Massoud, head of the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (NRFA), made the announcement on the group's Facebook page. Earlier, Taliban forces said they had fought their way into the provincial capital of Panjshir after securing the surrounding districts.

"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. A large gathering of all sides with the Ulema council of religious scholars could then be held, he said. Afghan media outlets reported that religious scholars had called on the Taliban to accept a negotiated settlement to end the fighting in Panjshir.

Panjshir, a rugged valley in the mountains north of Kabul that is still littered with the wreckage of Soviet tanks destroyed during the long war in the 1980s to oust the Soviet presence, has proved very difficult to overcome in the past. Under Massoud's late father, Ahmad Shah Massoud, the region long resisted control by both the invading Soviet army and by the Taliban government that previously ruled from 1996 to 2001. But that effort was helped by supply routes leading north to the border, which were closed off by the Taliban's sweeping victory last month.

Meanwhile, s spokesman of the anti-Taliban resistance group was killed in fighting in Panjshir province on Sunday, TOLOnews reported citing a source in the area where fighting is going on. Fahim Dashty, spokesperson of the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan, was a senior member of the Jamiat-e-Islami party and also a member of the Federation of Afghan Journalists, Khaama Press reported.