Panjshir (Pashto[a]: پنجشېر,Dari[b]: پنجشیر,lit. 'five lions'), commonly known asPanjsher, is one of the 34provinces of Afghanistan, located in the northeastern part of the country containing thePanjshir Valley. The province is divided into sevendistricts and contains 512 villages. The main inhabitants of the province areShamaliTajiks, who speakDari. As of 2021, the population of Panjshir province was about 334,940. Its currentgovernor is Mohammad Agha Hakim.[6]
Panjshir was attacked multiple times during the 1980sSoviet–Afghan War, against Ahmad Shah Massoud and his forces. The Panjshir region was in rebel control from August 17, 1979, after a regional uprising.[10] Aided by its mountainous terrain,[11] the region was well defended by mujahedeen commanders during the war against the PDPA government and the Soviet Union.
After the collapse of theDemocratic Republic of Afghanistan in 1992, the area became part of theIslamic State of Afghanistan. By the late 1990s, Panjshir and neighboring Badakhshan province served as a staging ground for theNorthern Alliance against theTaliban. On September 9, 2001, Defense Minister Ahmad Shah Massoud was assassinated by twoal-Qaeda operatives.[12] Two days later theSeptember 2001 attacks occurred in the United States and this led to the start of a major U.S.-led war in Afghanistan.
Construction of the Panjshir football stadium, 2011
Following theFall of Kabul on 15 August 2021, anti-Taliban forces loyal to theIslamic Republic of Afghanistan fled to the Panjshir Province.[13] They formed theNational Resistance Front of Afghanistan and kept fighting the newIslamic Emirate of Afghanistan in an ongoingconflict. The new resistance forces flew the old flag of theNorthern Alliance.[14] The resistance has held the Panjshir Valley and captured districts in neighboring provinces.[15] By early September 2021,Taliban forces managed to push into Panjshir and capture several districts from theNational Resistance Front of Afghanistan,[16] before gaining control of Bazarak on 6 September, pushing remaining resistance fighters into the mountains.[17][18][19] However, clashes still remain ongoing between the Taliban and resistance fighters in Panjshir Province.[20][21] A subsequent visit byRadio Télévision Suisse andJourneyman Pictures into Bazarak in October 2021 also revealed that despite claims of NRF inactivity by local Taliban officials, an armed confrontation between the NRF Taliban was in fact occurring in an undisclosed location in the mountains surrounding Bazarak, with resistance forces gaining the upper hand, thus confirming that the NRF remains still active near Bazarak and in Panjshir Province.[22] Although the NRF continues to carry out attacks, it does not control any territory in the province.[23]
^Note: "Predominantely" or "dominated" is interpreted as 99%, "majority" as 70%, "mixed" as 1/(number of ethnicities), "minority" as 30% and "few" or "some" as 1%.
EthnicTajiks form the majority of the population.[5] There is a SunniHazaras minority in the province, who form the majority inDarah district.[32]
Dari is the dominant language in the province.Pashto is understood by a few as a second or third language.[5] All inhabitants are followers ofIslam, and exclusivelySunni.
The overall literacy rate (6+ years of age) fell from 33% in 2005 to 32% in 2011.[33] The overall net enrolment rate (6–13 years of age) fell from 42% in 2005 to 40% in 2011.[33]Four Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) schools service the agriculturally-oriented Panjshir Province, including the Ahmad Shah Massoud TVET. The school was established with the help from the Hilfe Paderborn and German Foreign Office and as of 2014 had about 250 students and 22 staff members.[citation needed]
^Bowersox, Gary W. (2004).The Gem Hunter: The Adventures of an American in Afghanistan. United States: GeoVision, Inc. p. 100.ISBN0-9747-3231-1.Archived from the original on 8 August 2021. Retrieved22 August 2010.To launch this plan, Bhutto recruited and trained a group of Afghans in theBala-Hesar ofPeshawar, in Pakistan'sNorth-west Frontier Province. Among these young men were Massoud,Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, and other members of Jawanan-e Musulman. It served Massoud's interests, which were apparently opposition to the Soviets. Later, after Massoud and Hekmatyar had a terrible falling-out over Massoud's opposition to terrorist tactics and methods, Massoud overthrew from Jawanan-e Musulman. He joinedRabani's newly created Afghan political party,Jamiat-i-Islami, in exile in Pakistan.
^"Operations".Northern Alliance: Fighting for a Free Afghanistan. Friends of the Northern Alliance.Archived from the original on 24 August 2021. Retrieved20 August 2021.
