Anti-Taliban resistance leader Ahmad Massoud is still in Afghanistan, Iranian FARS news agency reported on Saturday, citing a source.
The source reportedly said that rumors about Massoud leaving Afghanistan for Turkey or any other place were false and that 70 percent of Panjshir’s main streets had fallen to the control of the Taliban.
“In recent days, the Taliban entered Panjshir and now 70 percent of the main streets and passages are under their control, but the valleys of Panjshir are still under the complete control of the popular forces [National Resistance Front (NRF)],” Qassem Mohammadi, a source close to Massoud, told FNA.
“He is in a safe place and the rumors that he has left Afghanistan and went to Turkey or another country are not true and he is in contact with Panjshir Valley,” the source added.
Ahmed Massoud, son of late anti-Taliban commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, called for a “national uprising” against the Taliban in an audio message sent to the media on Monday.
“Wherever you are, inside or outside, I call on you to begin a national uprising for the dignity, freedom, and prosperity of our country,” Massoud said on Monday.
Hundreds of Afghans in Kabul and Mazar-i-Sharif city took to the streets on Monday night to protest the Taliban rule and in support of the resistance movement led by Massoud.
Videos surfaced on social media, showing crowds chanting “death to Taliban, long lie Afghanistan” as they marked in dark streets.
Early Monday, the Taliban announced that it had captured the Panjshir province, the last stronghold of the anti-Taliban movement.
After the province was captured, Massoud tweeted that he was safe but did not reveal his location.