Bodies of five resistance forces were buried a year after they were killed fighting the Taliban in the Darah district of Panjshir province.
Local sources said the bodies were retrieved from difficult areas of Darah’s Pujawa mountain and exhumed by their bereaved family members on Tuesday after they sought permission from the Taliban’s deputy prime minister for burial.
Before that, the Taliban authorities had constantly denied families the right to recover the bodies and give a proper burial, sources said.
The deceased—identified as Ahmad Walad, Shah Faisal, Feroz, Zabih, and Bashir—were members of the anti-Taliban armed opposition group known as the National Resistance Front (NRF).
They were also associated with the former government, sources added.
The Taliban authorities in the province have not commented.
Led by Ahmad Masoud son of former Jihadi commander Ahmad Shah Masoud, NRF is formed of former security forces involved in deadly battles against the Taliban mainly in the north and northeastern provinces.
While Panjshir remains a bastion of anti-Taliban resistance since the Taliban seized power two years ago, rights groups have said that the Taliban has committed war crimes in the province through abuses and mass punishment of civilians and extrajudicial executions of prisoners of war.
