Pakistan Providing Air Support To Taliban

Afghanistan’s Vice President Amrullah Saleh has accused the Pakistan Air Force of supporting the Taliban and warning the Afghan forces from acting against it.

“The Pakistan Air Force has issued official warning to the Afghan Army and Air Force that any move to dislodge the Taliban from Spin Boldak area will be faced and repelled by the Pakistan Air Force,” Amrullah Saleh said in a tweet late Thursday evening.

He added that the Pakistan Air Force is now “providing close air support to the Taliban in certain areas”. While Amrullah Saleh levelled these serious charges on the Pakistan Air Force, he did not substantiate his allegations with evidence.

Earlier in the day, Amrullah Saleh tweeted that the Afghanistan Army brigade defending the encircled Qala Naw, the provincial centre of Badghis province, tuned the town into a kill/trap zone for the invading Taliban.

“Today, the community elders were used by the Talibs to negotiate ceasefire so they could collect their mortal remains and leave,” he tweeted.

In another tweet, he wrote, “Also, our brave commandoes of 215 Corps re-captured Chakhansour district in Nimroz, killing all Talibs and re-taking 10 APCs that were lost last week. It is a matter of time. Afghanistan is too big for Pakistan to swallow. Too big.”

What’s Happening In Afghanistan?

On Wednesday, the Taliban seized control of one of Afghanistan’s major border crossings with Pakistan. As per news agency Reuters, this is one of the most important objectives the Taliban has achieved so far during a rapid advance across the country as US forces pull out of the war-torn country.

Video released by the militants showed their white flag with black Koranic verse flying in place of the Afghanistan flag above the Friendship Gate at the border crossing in the Afghan town of Wesh, opposite the Pakistani town of Chaman.

“After two decades of the brutality of Americans and their puppets, this gate and the Spin Boldak district were captured by the Taliban,” a fighter said to camera.

“The strong resistance of the Mujahideen and its people forced the enemy to leave this area. As you can see, that’s the Islamic Emirate flag, the flag that thousands of Mujahideen shed their blood to raise.”

The crossing, in the Spin Boldak district south of Afghanistan’s main southern city Kandahar, is the landlocked country’s second busiest entry point and main commercial artery between its sprawling southwest region and Pakistani seaports. Afghan government data indicate that the route is used by 900 trucks a day.

Afghan officials said government forces had pushed back the Taliban and were in control of the district. But civilians and Pakistani officials said the Taliban remained in control of the crossing.

“Wesh, which has great importance in Afghan trade with Pakistan and other countries, has been captured by the Taliban,” said a Pakistani security official deployed at the border area.

Officials in Chaman said the Taliban had suspended all travel through the gate.

The Islamist militants, who ruled Afghanistan from 1996 until their ouster in 2001 by US bombing following the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, have since been fighting to topple the Western-backed government in Kabul.

US President Joe Biden has announced he is pulling out all US troops by August, and American forces left their main base in the country two weeks ago. Emboldened Taliban have been making a fresh push to surround cities and capture territory.

Afghan Vice President Amrullah Saleh said the Taliban were forcing members of a small ethnic minority to either convert to Islam or leave their homes in the northern province of Badakhshan.

“These are minority Kerghiz who lived there for centuries…They are now (across the border) in Tajikistan awaiting their fate,” he said on Twitter.