Embedded with the Taliban

A journey into Panjshir, the last stronghold

We were the first journalist getting into Panjshir. It was the last stronghold left in Afghanistan fighting against the Taliban. People were calling it a bloodbath, that the Taliban were killing civilians without remorse.

It was hard negiotating access since the Taliban never had to deal with journalists as much. But they were the ones with the upper hand and the ability to get there.

I tried to sell the story to outlets for a video but no one wanted me to take the risk so I decided to shoot photos only since we had a sale with the New York Post.

I thought of other ways, trying to get word with the Northern Alliance, the Panjshiris and sneak in. But then we heard that they had fled and the Taliban controlled the province and the major roads.

Our fixer organised it and we were to go to main city and see the commander.

A blown up stood in the middle of the road on the entrance in. Vehicles were burnt out. There was all these rumors that the ISI used planes and drones to bomb targets. But this seem untrue.

We got to the main government building and the Taliban were claiming the win. They stood by a humvee brandishing newly acquired American weapons with a torn poster of former Panjshir commander Ahmad Shah Massoud.

People had fled or were fleeing the villages. The shops were closed except for a few shops. The Taliban let the civilians leave without harassment. There wasn't any scenes of bloodshed except blown up vehicles but no dead were found in the streets or in gunned down buildings.

The commander wanted to dispel the idea that they murderous barbarians and let us drive the whole distance of Panjshir to see for ourselves. And so we jumped in one of their cars which was with a Talib who couldn'y drive a manual car.

I felt like we were likely going to die with his driving and later on he did drop the clutch and we were towed back til a commander took us.

We visited Massoud's tomb and the commander who was stationed there. He showed us the resting place which was used as a sniper position. There was a glass cover which was broken which was another rumour that the Taliban had dessecrated the grave.

The commander had referred that the National Resistance Front had damaged it and got the care taker to confirm it. These two old grumpy looking Panjshiris confirmed it but I am sure they just wanted the Taliban out. They just wanted to get on with everything and restore the tomb.

Everything we were reading on tweets just seemed like lies and propaganda.

It took us hours to drive all the Panjshiri valley. We had stopped at a mosque at one time where Hollie had been molested by a local of the village after she went to the bathroom.

She kept it secret til later cause I'd probably get pissed or my fixer would and likely the Taliban would of done something about it. Despite the Taliban are not really into women have an education or be in the workforce, they are rather possessive of a women's virtue.

We had lunch by the river and even then the Taliban soldiers all sat away eating watermelon leaving Hollie and us alone to eat. Only the commander came by to ask us questions.

We got to the last village before it becomes Badakhshan and there really wasn't any horrific scenes to report. Panjshir was the centre of the resistance against the Russians occupation but the new resistance didn't hold up against the Taliban.

No doubt some of the villagers supported the Taliban's return to power. The NRF, I believe were infighting between the son of Ahmad Shah Massoud and Vice President Ammarullah Saleh and squabbled over money. Their spokesman Fahim Dasty was killed when Saleh fled on helicopter out of the valley.

The Taliban had successfully taken over Badakshan and cut the lines of support to Tajikistan. Several battallions of Taliban had cut the only road in and out of Panjshir and also crossed the mountain ridges into main township.

This leaving the NRF to flee towards Nuristan and hide out into the mountains. It was a long drive home and our fixer had to drive the broken Talib's car back being towed. He looked butt hurt when everyone laughed at him and we were taken by their commander in the pick up.

For now, the Taliban had won out all of Afghanistan with no major opposition. But for how long would this peace last?