Up to 150,000 people in northern Afghanistan are said to be fleeing from advancing Taliban forces and making their way to the Tajikistan border. European aid workers in the area say the refugees are in a desperate situation – without food, shelter or medicines. The refugees are sheltering in the Pamir Mountains, a remote and inaccessible area near the international border, which has been closed by the Tajikistan government. […] ‘These people have nowhere to go. There is no food, no shelter, no equipment or medicine’, Afghan affairs expert, Ahmed Rashid, told BBC World Service radio from Lahore, Pakistan. […]

Aid workers say they are unable to reach the refugees because of the remoteness of the area. UN officials are now in Kabul trying to persuade the Taliban to allow aid convoys through before snow blocks roads and leaves the refugees stranded. The winter in the Pamir Mountains is only six weeks away and there is an urgent need to get food stocks to the refugees to last them through the winter months. The Taliban, which captured power in 1996, control 90 per cent of the country with just a small bit of territory in the north holding out. They have made several attempts to capture the remaining 10 per cent and extend their rule to the entire country.