Resistance Spreading In Afghanistan: Brother Of Anti-Taliban Group Leader
Resistance to the Taliban has spread extensively across Afghanistan and therefore the hardline Islamists are going to be unable to crush it within the wake of their takeover, the brother of famed commander Ahmad Shah Massoud said Wednesday.
The comments by Ahmad Wali Massoud to AFP in Paris come as his nephew Ahmad Massoud, the son of the commander killed in 2001, seeks to steer — alongside former vice-president Amrullah Saleh — an armed resistance based within the Panjshir valley north of Kabul.
“If the Taliban want to attack, people have the proper to resist, to face against the Taliban. The geography of the resistance has expanded such a lot across Afghanistan,” said Massoud, who has been based in Pakistan where he headed an NGO protecting the legacy of his brother.
He argued that “the beliefs of the people of Afghanistan have changed within the past 20 years. There has been an enormous jump.”
“The women of Afghanistan are the resistance, because their values are very different from those of the Taliban. The young generations of Afghanistan, which structure 70 percent of the population, they’re a part of the resistance.
“No matter what happens, resistance will continue. it’s freedom fight for a universal belief, for universal rights. it’ll never die.”
– ‘Moral obligation’ –
Ahmad Massoud, son of Ahmad Shah Massoud, vowed to never surrender but said he was hospitable negotiations with the new rulers of Afghanistan, in an interview published by Paris Match on Wednesday.
Ahmad Massoud claimed “thousands” of men were joining his National Resistance Front within the Panjshir valley, which was never captured by invading Soviet forces in 1979 or the Taliban during their playing period in power from 1996-2001.
He also renewed his appeal for support from foreign leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron, and expressed bitterness at being refused weapons shortly before the autumn of Kabul earlier this month.
Ahmad Wali Massoud added: “The international community possesses an ethical obligation to assist us.”
But he said the resistance forces were prepared for a grinding guerrilla struggle with the Taliban, even as the hardliners had waged an armed struggle against NATO forces for 2 decades.
“Our guys have tons of experience… If it involves a resistance, we are pretty sure that across Afghanistan, there’ll be warfare everywhere to exhaust the Taliban. which will be guerrilla resistance, military resistance, but at an equivalent time there’ll be political resistance.”
Ahmad Shah Massoud, a francophile with close links to Paris and therefore the West, was nicknamed the “Lion of Panjshir” for his role in fighting the Soviet occupation within the 1980s and therefore the Taliban regime within the 1990s.
He was assassinated by Al-Qaeda two days before the 9/11 , 2001 attacks.
