Taliban intelligence* detained and imprisoned about 20 militants accused of deserting military service in the Panjshir Valley.
HINDUKUSH, April 3 - Sangar, Hasib Sangari. These days, the Taliban's escape from the Panjer Valley is intensifying as heat approaches and snow melts. They leave the valley individually and in groups.
A source of the Sangar website, a witness to the arrest of militants from the movement at the main gate of the Panjshir Valley, said that two militants were detained before his eyes - one from Helmand, the other from Zabul.
“According to them, they served at the base of the Taliban Ministry of Defense in the Khinj district, Panjshir province. When they decided to desert, they sold their weapons cheaply to the locals, changed into different clothes, and cut their long beards to look like the Panjshirs. Then they boarded taxis Panjshir-Kabul,” he said.
According to the source, a special Taliban reconnaissance group is working at the Panjshir Gate, which monitors traffic and exposes members of the Resistance Front. This group arrested several young people from Panjshir and took them to Kabul.
However, today the opposite is happening. They'll have to be vigilant to keep their deserters out. According to Sangar's source, a total of 19 deserters from the same provinces mentioned above were detained that day.
“During interrogation, the detained Taliban fugitives said that the situation in Panjshir is deteriorating day by day. The local population dislikes them. During the day it is very difficult to move through the valley, let alone at night. They do not know the local language and customs,” the source said.
The Taliban's flight from Panjshir is likely linked to their two major defeats and heavy casualties in Panjsher after attacks on National Resistance Front forces last month.
The first Taliban attack was in the Shutul Valley, resulting in the deaths of nine Taliban, including Mullah Izzatullah, a Kandaharite who was the second in command of the Red Detachment. The other is an unsuccessful operation in the Puni Valley, where the Taliban suffered the greatest losses, namely, about 100 killed and wounded. Fighting is still going on, as the bodies and wounded of the Taliban are still being taken out of the area to Kabul.
“These two failures of the Taliban, as well as the recent small-scale attacks and ambushes by the Resistance Front in Panjshir, have broken their spirit. According to the information we have, only the Kandahar Taliban from the group of the Taliban Defense Minister Mullah Yakub remain in the ranks. The rest of the Taliban from Zabul, Helmand, Khost and Badakhshan present in Panjshir are fleeing the valley alone or in small groups through the Khavak, Anjoman, Darband, and Chelanak pass,” the source said.
Meanwhile, there are reports that the Taliban leadership has told their fighters that they won't be able to pay their salaries for another fourteen months, so their fighters are selling their weapons and fleeing. According to a reliable source, three Taliban from the Baharak region of Badakhshan province, who were in Panjshir, sold their weapons and fled to Iran.
The main valley of the Panjshir was conquered in the first decade of September 2021. Forces of the National Resistance Front retreated into the side valleys.
According to the National Resistance Front, about 400 people have died since the beginning of the Panjshir Wars, half of the resistance fighters and civilians. According to this source, about 2,000 Taliban were killed and wounded in Panjshir territory.
*The organization is under UN sanctions for terrorist activities.