Taliban turns Panjshir into a military zone with 700 checkpoints and 30,000 troops

Abdullah Khenjani, head of the political office and spokesman for the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan, said the Taliban administration has established about 700 security checkpoints in Panjshir province and deployed nearly 30,000 military personnel there.

According to him, the Taliban regard Panjshir as their biggest strategic threat and have even criminalised Panjshiri identity. Khenjani stressed that no region in Afghanistan’s history has experienced such a level of militarisation and repression under Taliban rule as Panjshir.

The political office chief of the National Resistance Front also noted that the number of Taliban forces at checkpoints in Panjshir is twice the number of their fighters in areas bordering Pakistan. Criticising the silence over the Taliban’s repressive actions in the province, he warned that continuing this situation would have serious political and military consequences in the future.

These claims come as Hakim Agha, the Taliban-appointed governor of Panjshir, had earlier said that the presence of Taliban fighters in the province is greater than in other provinces and that they are under tight control in order to preserve the Islamic system and maintain security.