Taliban Again Orders Closure of Schools for Girls in Paktia. Female Students Protest

In a statement on the 21st anniversary of the assassination of Ahmad Shah Massoud, the national hero of Afghanistan, the council stressed that Afghans’ fight for their rights must be supported.

The council has addressed the international community and said that in the absence of a legitimate, decentralised, and inclusive government, the prospect of the Taliban rule will be dark and will spread terrorism in the region and across the globe.

Atta Mohammad Noor, a member of the Supreme Council of National Resistance for the Salvation of Afghanistan, has published the statement.

Other members of this council include former vice-president Marshal Abdul Rashid Dostum; Hazara leader Mohammad Mohaqiq; anti-Taliban Jihadi leader Abdul Rab Rasool Sayyaf; former speaker of Afghan Lower House of Parliament Mir Rahman Rahmani; former Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani; jihadi leader Ismail Khan and some other political figures of Afghanistan.

This council had previously asked the Taliban to negotiate with them regarding ruling Afghanistan. The Taliban did not respond to these demands of the council.

NRF stressed that Massoud understood the extremist ideology of the Taliban and other international terrorist organisations and had always warned about the threats and dangers of such groups.

The Front, then, cited Massoud’s famous words, "Be it or not, the resistance continues”.

Ahmad Shah Masoud is considered one of the most prominent commanders of Guerrilla wars in the 20th century. He was able to defend his home, Panjshir Valley, against the attacks of the Soviet Red Army and later, resisted the Taliban in northern Afghanistan.

During the presidency of Hamid Karzai, the Afghan government had honoured Massoud with the "National Hero of Afghanistan" title.

Massoud was assassinated on September 9, 2001, by two Arab suicide bombers who had posed as journalists in Takhar province.

Sources in Gardiz city of Paktia province told Afghanistan International that around 4am on Friday morning, a Taliban weapons depot in Mansoori Corps had been destroyed due to the air strike.

Meanwhile, sources confirmed to Afghanistan International on Friday that the Taliban brigade in Gereshk district of Helmand province had been targeted by an air strike on Thursday. According to the sources, here too, a Taliban weapons depot had been destroyed in the attack.

Meanwhile, reports were published on Thursday that the Taliban police command building in Helmand was targeted by an air strike.

Taliban officials have not yet commented on these reports.

In recent days, several reports of unmanned aircraft patrolling several provinces of Afghanistan have been published.

Last week, sources confirmed to Afghanistan International that Abul Hussain Mujahid, a prominent member of al-Qaeda, and four Taliban fighters had been killed in an air strike in Kabul's Dehmazang area in District 3 of Kabul.

After the killing of al-Qaida leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, in Kabul, over-the-horizon activities have increased in Afghanistan.

Recently, in a press conference, Amir Khan Muttaqi the Taliban’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, asked the US to adhere to the Doha Agreement and to no longer violate Afghanistan's airspace.

Ahmad Massoud, the son of Ahmad Shah Massoud and the current leader of the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan, said, "Ahmad Shah Massoud kept freedom alive with the resistance until the last moment of his life.” According to the NRF leader, the people of Afghanistan will follow his path.

Abdullah Abdullah, the former chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation, said that after more than two decades, the name of Ahmad Shah Massoud has become a symbol of steadfastness, equality, independence, realisation of social justice and struggle against aggression.

Ahmad Shah Massoud was one of the most prominent jihadi commanders of Afghanistan who fought the Soviet occupation of the country between 1979 and 1989. In the 1990s, he worked as the Minister of Defense of the Islamic State of Afghanistan, and later formed the National Resistance Front against the Taliban in northern Afghanistan.

Massoud was assassinated in Takhar Province, on September 9, 2001, in a suicide attack by terrorists who posed as journalists.

The meeting took place within the framework of the US-Afghanistan consultative mechanism.

The US State Department recently launched the US-Afghanistan Consultative Mechanism and US secretary of state Antony Blinken had said that the consultative mechanism was launched with the cooperation of Rina Amiri.

Blinken stressed that the purpose of the mechanism is to interact more with Afghan civil society, especially women.

Rina Amiri had previously said that through the consultative mechanism, she would support meeting the demands of the Afghan people inside and outside of Afghanistan.