He Is All That Stands In The Way Of The Taliban Taking Total Control Of Afghanistan

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A banner in the Panjshir Valley portrays of Ahmad Massoud and his father with a slogan «You dream of a free country, free thanks to your army, Ahmad is by your side, may God protect you.

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Afghan guerrilla leader, Ahmad Shah Massoud, center, is surrounded by rebel commanders at a meeting in the Panjshir Valley in northeast Afghanistan, in 1984.

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Reflecting On Sept. 11, 2001
In Afghanistan, Assessing A Rebel Leader’s Legacy

The next generation of resistance has coalesced

Fast-forward to 2021: Massoud’s 32-year-old son is picking up from where his legendary father left off. But unlike the Lion of Panjshir, the younger Massoud has no combat experience. He was educated in the United Kingdom — having trained as a foreign cadet at the Royal Military College at Sandhurst, studied at King’s College, and later received a master’s degree in international politics from London’s City University, according to The Spectator. His undergraduate and postgraduate dissertations were on the Taliban.

As the Taliban gained strength in the years before their final assault last month on Kabul, the Afghan capital, Massoud began organizing opposition against a possible return of the hard-line Islamist militia. In the spring, Massoud made the rounds and met with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris — where his father, who studied at a French lycée in Afghanistan, remains a revered figure.

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The U.K.-educated Ahmad Massoud (shown here in 2019) is the son of legendary commander Ahmad Shah Massoud and, like his father, is amassing resistance forces in Panjshir province.

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Asia
The Taliban Say They’ve Changed. Experts Aren’t Buying It

Afghanistan’s Hazaras, in particular, have reason to be fearful of the Taliban and a strong incentive to resist. During the Taliban’s previous years in power, they targeted Hazaras in a campaign of repression and persecution, including mass killings. There’s no indication they’ve moderated since: A recent Amnesty International report outlines recent Taliban atrocities against the minority group.

«These targeted killings are proof that ethnic and religious minorities remain at particular risk under Taliban rule in Afghanistan, Agnès Callamard, the group’s secretary general, said.

It may be too late for a negotiated settlement

Despite Massoud’s bellicose-sounding Washington Post op-ed, he has also suggested Panjshir might talk its way out of Taliban control. Last week, delegations from the Taliban and the Panjshir resistance reportedly met in the northern Parwan province, but the three-hour meeting seems to have yielded little more than an agreement to keep talking.

«We want to make the Taliban realize that the only way forward is through negotiation, Massoud told Reuters recently. «We do not want a war to break out.

In an interview-by-email with Foreign Policy magazine, Massoud elaborated: «If the Taliban are willing to reach a power-sharing deal where power is equally distributed and is decentralized, then we can move toward a settlement that is acceptable to everyone, he wrote. «Anything less than this will be unacceptable to us, and we will continue our struggle and resistance until we achieve justice, equality, and freedom.

For the Taliban’s part, one of its senior leaders, Amir Khan Motaqi, called on the Panjshir resistance to lay down its weapons and negotiate peace. «The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is home for all Afghans, he said in a speech.

But it may already be too late. With Kabul secure and the Americans finally gone, the Taliban have turned their military attention to the rogue province.

The Taliban say «hundreds of their fighters are heading toward the Panjshir «after local … officials refused to hand it over, according to the group’s Arabic Twitter account, Al-Jazeera reports.

And first blood has already been drawn, seemingly dimming the chances for a negotiated settlement. As the last U.S. flights were leaving Kabul on Monday night, at least seven of Taliban soldiers were killed in clashes in Panjshir, Massoud’s resistance group said, according to The Associated Press.

Meanwhile, the Taliban are in a position to surround Massoud’s resistance fighters and cut off their access to supplies. It’s not clear how long they can hold out.

Massoud, for his part, is reaching out for help from a war-weary Washington, as well as the U.K. and France.

«[We] need more weapons, more ammunition and more supplies, he wrote.