:quality(75)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/elcomercio/DM3U4TFLDJFZBL6IRN3S3F5NBA.jpg "Taliban find .5 million and Gold Bars from former Vice President Amrullah Saleh's house")
The Taliban announced on Monday that they seized $6.5 million and several gold bars at the residence of former Afghan Vice President Amrullah Saleh in the northern province of Panjshir, from where he led the resistance of this region, captured by the Islamists almost a week ago.
The troops of the Taliban “found this large amount of money and gold bars yesterday when they searched the residence of Amrullah Saleh in the province of Panjshir”, assured to Efe the member of the Culture Commission of the Taliban Mashal Afghan.
The money and gold were handed over to Taliban commander Mansour Agha, who leads the Taliban forces in that area of Panjshir, where Saleh has his home, he said.
In a short video released by the Taliban, the combatants can be seen counting several suitcases full of banknotes and pieces of gold in a room, where they then announce that they will give that money to their superiors so as not to betray the “martyrs”.
For now neither Saleh nor has anyone in his circle defended himself against the accusations.
Corruption of officials and misuse of state assets was one of the main criticisms made of the deposed Government of Afghanistan by the international community and Afghans.
Despite the efforts announced by the deposed President Ashraf Ghani, and by his predecessor Hamid Karzai, the Afghan state failed to contain the corruption that plagued the system.
Saleh served as Ghani’s first vice president for the past year and a half, and prior to this he headed the main Afghan intelligence agency, the National Security Directorate (NDS).
Amrullah Saleh had fled to Panjshir province after the collapse of the Ghani government and his flight from the country on August 15, coinciding with the fall of Kabul to the Taliban.
Saleh quickly joined the National Resistance Front against the Taliban under the leadership of Ahmad Massoud, son of the legendary Afghan commander Ahmad Shah Massoud.
The forces of resistance of Panjshir faced the Taliban for 23 days, but finally the Islamists managed to capture much of the province on September 6.
With the fall of Panjshir, most of the resistance forces withdrew to the mountains and since then there is no precise information on the whereabouts of Saleh and Massoud, who could continue in the region or fled to neighboring Tajikistan.