Fall of Panjshir

Fall of Panjshir

Subject: IR

Context: The fall of Panjshir, the last remaining holdout controlled by the Northern Alliance forces, means curtains for the armed opposition to the new rulers of Afghanistan for now.

Concept:

• The Panjshir Valley literally Valley of the Five Lions is a valley in north-central Afghanistan.
• It is divided by the Panjshir River. The valley is home to more than 100,000 people, including Afghanistan’s largest concentration of ethnic Tajiks
• The Panjshir has always been an important highway. Nearly 100 kilometres long, it leads to two passes over the Hindu Kush the Khawak Pass ) leading to Afghanistan’s northern plains, and the Anjuman Pass that crosses into Badakhshan – used by the armies of Alexander the Great and Timur.
• Located 150 km north of Kabul, the Valley is near the Hindu Kush Mountain range.
• It’s divided by the Panjshir River and ringed by the Panjshir Mountains in the north and the Kuhestan mountains in the south.
• The mountain tops are covered by snow throughout the year.