Afghanistan Too Big for Pakistan to Swallow, Taliban to Govern: 'Caretaker' President Saleh

Afghanistan’s former vice president, Amrullah Saleh, on Thursday challenged Taliban and Pakistan’s authority over Afghanistan and urged to not to bow to terror groups.

“Nations must respect the rule of law, not violence. Afghanistan is too big for Pakistan to swallow and too big for Talibs to govern. Don’t let your histories have a chapter on humiliation and bowing to terror groups,” he tweeted.

Now the self-declared ‘caretaker president’, he made one thing clear as the Taliban seized control of the capital on August 15 following the collapse of his government — he will not surrender.

It appears Amrullah Saleh has retreated to the country’s last remaining holdout: the Panjshir Valley northeast of Kabul.

“I won’t dis-appoint millions who listened to me. I will never be under one ceiling with Taliban. NEVER,” he wrote n Twitter on Sunday, before going underground.

A day later, pictures began to surface on social media of the former vice president with the son of his former mentor and famed anti-Taliban fighter Ahmed Shah Massoud in Panjshir — a mountainous redoubt tucked into the Hindu Kush.

Saleh and Massoud’s son, who commands a militia force, appear to be putting together the first pieces of a guerilla movement to take on the victorious Taliban, as fighters regroup in Panjshir.

Amrullah Saleh was also born in Panjshir province and was trained there. Since it has always remained the resistance zone, it was never conquered by any forces — neither by foreign forces nor by the Taliban, a report in Hindustan Times said.

There are also reports that Afghan soldiers, who managed to evade Taliban troops, have begun arriving in Panjshir at the call of Ahmad Massoud.

Washington Post reporter Ezzatullah Mehrdad tweeted: “Former Vice President Amrullah Saleh, Ahmad Massoud, the son of Ahmad Shah Massoud, and coming in former defence minister Bismillah Khan Mohammadi are forming a resistance force against the Taliban in Panjshir of Afghanistan”.

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