Taliban not allowing food into Andarab, using children and elderly as shields, says Saleh

Kabul : The Taliban are not allowing food and fuel into Andarab valley adjoining Panjshir in northeastern Afghanistan and the humanitarian situation there is dire, Amrullah Saleh, who has declared himself the caretaker President of Afghanistan, said on Tuesday.

He also said the Taliban have been abducting children and the elderly and using them as shields to move around or do house searches.

“Talibs aren’t allowing food and fuel to get into Andarab valley. The humanitarian situation is dire.

“Thousands of women and children have fled to the mountains. Since the last two days Talibs abducted children and elderly and used them as shields to move around or do house searches,” he said in a tweet.

As the Taliban and the resistance forces in Panjshir are locked in a fierce battle for the past two days, Saleh also said that he will never leave Afghanistan.

“That indelible color red in my heart is Afghanistan. Only God will one day evacuate my soul from here but still my remains will reunite with the soil. I own Afghanistan and it owns me. We are one. It speaks to me every day,” he said.

Panjshir is the only province that has not fallen to the Taliban, who have taken over Afghanistan. The Taliban are crushing rebellions in different parts of the country, and did so in Baghlan in northern Afghanistan on Monday.

The Taliban took over Banu, Pol-e-Hesar and Deh Salah districts of Baghlan on Monday and have surrounded the forces of Ahmad Massoud, who is the son of late Afghan leader Ahmad Shah Massoud, in Panjshir.

Saleh has joined forces with Massoud in Panjshir, located 150 km north of Kabul.