The Taliban has taken away security from former Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah, an Afghan official who leads the High Council for National Reconciliation, a source told CNN. On Monday, the Taliban confiscated weapons from Karzai's armed protection team and took away his vehicles, prompting the former president to move in with Abdullah, the source said. On Wednesday, the Taliban later also searched Abdullah's home and took his security and vehicles. Karzai and Abdullah are effectively under house arrest in Kabul without their bodyguards and at the mercy of the Taliban, according to the source. Last week, a Taliban spokesman told CNN that the group wanted to form an inclusive government. It has since held talks with former president Karzai and former chief executive Abdullah, both of whom stayed in Kabul when the Taliban took over the capital more than a week ago. Abdullah previously said he was hopeful for the Taliban forming an inclusive government, the source tells CNN. Abdullah is less optimistic than he was a week ago. Meanwhile, Taliban officials have said talks are ongoing with representatives from the northern Panjshir Valley, the last area of Afghanistan yet to fall to the militant group. Sporadic fighting between the Taliban and the Panjshir-based National Resistance Front, led by Ahmad Masoud, has continued for a week. Taliban officials told CNN both sides had agreed to stop offensive actions. Representatives from both sides are negotiating in Charika, the capital of the neighboring Parwan province. The Taliban officials said one sticking point was the insistence of the National Resistance Front that a national holiday in Afghanistan honoring Masoud's father — Ahmad Shah Masoud — continue to be recognized. Masoud had led resistance against the Taliban when they were in power between 1996 and 2001. Sept. 9 has been a national holiday in his honor, marking the day he was killed in a suicide bombing in 2001. The Panjshir Valley, some 150 kilometers (about 93 miles) north of Kabul, is the epicenter of Afghan guerrilla warfare. It has long withstood foreign occupation, and never fell to the Taliban during the militant group's rule between 1996 and 2001. — CNN
