Taliban Yet To Name Government As Panjshir Resistance Holds

A Taliban source said announcement of a new government would be pushed back to next week..

Fresh fighting was reported Saturday between the Taliban and resistance forces in Afghanistan’s Panjshir Valley, as the hardline Islamists finalise a new government that will set the tone for their rule.

Facing the challenge of morphing from insurgents to rulers, the Taliban appear determined to snuff out the Panjshir resistance before announcing who will lead the country in the aftermath of Monday’s US troop withdrawal, which was supposed to end two decades of war.

But Panjshir, which held out for nearly a decade against the Soviet Union’s occupation and also the Taliban’s first rule from 1996-2001, is stubbornly holding out.

Fighters from the so-called National Resistance Front (NRF) — made up of anti-Taliban militia and former Afghan security forces — are understood to have stockpiled a significant armoury in the valley, around 80 kilometres (50 miles) north of Kabul and guarded by a narrow gorge.

Here are the LIVE updates on the Afghanistan Crisis:

First Afghan Cricket Team In Taliban Era Arrives In Bangladesh

Afghanistan’s Under-19 team began to arrive in Bangladesh Saturday to play a short series, an official said, the first Afghan cricket team to play abroad following the Taliban takeover.

They will play five one-dayers and a four-day match against Bangladesh’s Under-19 team at the Sylhet International Stadium between September 10 to 25.

“The first group of eight players arrived in Dhaka today. The remaining players will arrive in two other groups,” said Rabeed Imam, a Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) spokesman.

They are the first Afghan team to play international cricket in any form since the Taliban took control of much of their country in mid-August.

Imam said the Afghan athletes left for the northeastern city of Sylhet immediately after they arrived in Dhaka.