A video shot by a resident of Khorog, the capital of the Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO) in Tajikistan, shows the Taliban militant movement member hoisting a flag on the border-crossing bridge over the Pan River connecting Qala-ye Bar Panja, the administrative center of the Shighnan district in Afghanistan Badakhshan province, and Khorog’s Tem neighborhood unit.
Recall, Eurasianet said on July 7 that a video circulating on messengers in Afghanistan shows what appears to be a member of the Taliban militant movement overseeing the passage of freight traffic through a recently captured border crossing into Tajikistan.
In the undated video footage, the Taliban representative can be heard to say in Pashto that he is at Sher Khan Bandar, a border crossing built in 2007 with U.S. funding in a location around 62 kilometers north of the Afghan city of Kunduz.
After explaining his location, the speaker, who is also filming the footage, walks up to a passing truck to ask the driver where he is headed. The driver says he is going to Tajikistan.
The Taliban representative then tells the driver that he should expect no troubles, but that the Taliban will keep cargo operators informed if difficulties arise.
The video appears to confirm a July 5 Wall Street Journal report that instead of shutting down after the insurgent takeover, the Sher Khan Bandar complex has remained operational, with tacit understandings reached between the Taliban and Tajikistan, according to local traders.
According to the chief of the Collective Treaty Organization (CSTO) Joint Staff, Colonel-General Anatoly Suvorov, the Taliban have completely taken control of almost the entire state border of Afghanistan.
