Taliban’s power challenged by Afghan National Resistance Front, ISIS-K

The Taliban have had to consolidate power and assert control over Afghanistan, battle ISIS-K and tamp down the resistance movement in Panjshir province.

When the Taliban took Kabul, many anti-Taliban forces within the U.S.-trained armed forces and former members of the Ghani government fled to the Panjshir Valley, a bastion of anti-Taliban resistance north of Kabul where the Taliban had yet to exert full control. Other leading opposition figures fled to neighboring Tajikistan, where the government in Dushanbe has provided a safe haven. 

The rugged and mountainous Panjshir Valley, which held firm against Soviet occupation in the 1980s and Taliban rule in the 1990s, is the ideal location to lead an insurgency. Almost immediately after the Taliban seized Kabul, anti-Taliban forces quickly announced their opposition to the new government and initially were able to hold off the Taliban’s advance on the valley. Unfortunately for the resistance movement, the Taliban launched a major offensive and captured the valley in early September 2021, with Taliban forces raising their flag over the Bazarak provincial capital center.