Afghan Resistance Delegation Meets With Taliban in Charikar

ISLAMABAD - A delegation from Panjshir, the last bastion of resistance against the Taliban in Afghanistan, held talks Thursday with a Taliban delegation in Charikar, the capital of neighboring Parwan province, to try to find a peaceful solution to their conflict.  Talibs aren't allowing food & fuel to get into Andarab valley. The humanitarian situation is dire. Thousands of women & children have fled to mountains. Since the last two days Talibs abduct children & elderly and use them as shields to move around or do house search.

Fahim Dashty, who is working closely in Panjshir with Ahmad Massoud, confirmed the meeting. Ahmad is the son of Ahmad Shah Massoud, the esteemed guerilla leader of the Northern Alliance, who was assassinated in 2001.  "There were some of the former ministers, some of the formers MPs (members of Parliament), not only from Panjshir, but from other provinces, too," Dashty said, when describing the composition of their delegation. A Taliban source also confirmed the meeting on condition of anonymity because he was not an official spokesman for the group. He told VOA the Taliban delegation was led by Maulvi Amir Khan Mottaqi.