Islamic National Freedom: New movement against Taliban in Nangarhar

Since seizing power last August, the Taliban has tried to control the political situation in the country and adopted a discourse that suggests to the world that the entire home front is under its control and that the division and internal conflicts that prevailed in Afghanistan are a thing of the past, despite the military confrontations that took place in Panjshir once the movement declared its control over the government. Recently, a new movement against the Taliban appeared in Nangarhar province, which foreshadows the birth of other factions in the future.

New faction

During the last week of February, local media and activists on social media circulated news of the formation of a new armed faction to resist the Taliban, under the name Islamic National Freedom movement, and the new faction was formed in the Nangarhar region in the east of the country.

The Nangarhar region is one of the areas that witnessed the most activity of ISIS since the Taliban rose to power last August. Among the most prominent operations carried out by ISIS in this area was the attack on a mosque in the Spin Ghar area during Friday prayers in mid-November, leaving three people dead and more than 15 injured.

In this turbulent atmosphere, the new armed faction appeared to announce itself in a video recording, circulated by those close to it on social media, announcing the establishment of the new movement, without disclosing the identity of its leaders, despite the announcement of the goal of establishing this faction as a resistance to the Taliban.

Afghan opposition

The new faction joins the list of other traditional opposition factions facing the Taliban, not just since its rise to power last August, but since its inception, and most of them are based on ethnic lines led by former warlords whose militias still control parts of the country, as the center of the country has a Hazara majority, in the north it has a Tajik majority, and in the south it has a Pashtun majority.

Resistance in Panjshir

The fierce resistance to the Taliban emerged after it seized power in the province of Panjshir at the hands of Ahmed Shah Massoud, who leads the National Resistance Front party, which the movement was able to control days after it came to power.