In recent years Mr Masoud again retreated to the Panjshir with the advance of the Taliban.

ECONOMIST: Ahmad Shah Masoud

Others will seek the leadership of the Panjshir, which is said to be defended by 12, 000 fighters.

ECONOMIST: Ahmad Shah Masoud

The Russians could never penetrate the redoubt he created in the Panjshir valley.

ECONOMIST: Ahmad Shah Masoud

With his troops and what materials (including 2, 000 books) he could transport, Mr Masoud made a fighting retreat to the Panjshir.

ECONOMIST: Ahmad Shah Masoud

Another possibility is a Panjshir-based attack by Mr Masoud on Kabul.

ECONOMIST: The battle for Afghanistan

First, they underestimated the strength of General Dostam's one-time ally, Ahmad Shah Masoud, who continues to hold out in the mountains and high passes of the Panjshir Valley, in the east of the country.

ECONOMIST: The battle for Afghanistan

In the late nineteen-nineties, working for the legendary anti-Taliban commander Ahmed Shah Massoud, he sold emeralds mined in the crags of the Panjshir Valley and used the proceeds to pay an obscure Russian company to print truckloads of Afghan currency.

NEWYORKER: The Afghan Bank Heist

But I then traveled up to the Panjshir Valley, north of Kabul, a largely Tajik area, and there people were voting in significant numbers, not least because the Tajiks are a minority, want to, try to acquire a block of power in parliament to counterbalance what they say is a Pashtun-governated Karzai administration in Afghanistan.

NPR: Afghanistan Officials Call Election a Success