KABUL, Afghanistan: Afghanistan’s National Resistance Front (NRF) has said that the Taliban deployed nearly 30,000 fighters and established approximately 700 security posts in Panjshir province, describing the military presence as an unprecedented crackdown.
Abdullah Khenjani, head of the NRF’s political office and its spokesman, said this in a post on X on Tuesday, October 20.
Khenjani said that no region in Afghanistan’s history had experienced such extensive militarisation and repression as Panjshir under Taliban rule.
He accused the Taliban of killing residents without restraint and described the deployment as a significant escalation of hostility.
The NRF official also criticised what he described as silence surrounding Taliban abuses in the province, warning that the situation could have serious political and military consequences.
Taliban Defends Security Presence
The statement follows earlier remarks by Panjshir’s Taliban-appointed governor, Hakim Agha, who acknowledged that the group’s security presence in the province exceeded deployments elsewhere in Afghanistan.
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Agha defended the heightened security arrangements, saying they were necessary to preserve the Islamic system and maintain stability.
Panjshir has remained a centre of resistance to Taliban rule since the group’s return to power in August 2021.
