NEW DELHI: Continuing to capture more provinces in war-torn Afghanistan, the Taliban insurgents have captured over half of the country's provinces and are advancing in their quest to capture the national capital Kabul in the coming days.

According to reports in the local media, in the past 48 hours, the Taliban has managed to capture nearly 18 out of the 34 administrative provinces of Afghanistan which include major cities like Ghazni, Herat, Helmand, Badghis, Ghor, Logar, Zabul, Oruzgan provinces and the latest one to fall is the city of Kandahar is considered as a major strategic loss to the Afghans.

Local media is reporting that apart from the aforementioned provinces, there are also other provinces like Paktia and Wardak where the Afghan government forces only control the provincial capitals and the Taliban are controlling the rest of the geography.

In several provincial districts, citizens are asking the government forces through their representatives not to persist to avoid more bloodshed and human casualties. The governor of Oruzgan province-fallen to the Taliban has told media people that the people asked him not to persist so that the people are not killed and the city is not damaged further. Kunar province is also one such which fell to Taliban without resistance.

Each province has its capital and is represented by a governor, these are further divided into nearly 400 provincial districts, each of which normally covers a city or several villages. Each district is represented by a district governor.

Meanwhile, in a bid to end the armed conflict the negotiators representing the Afghan government has offered a power-sharing proposition to the Taliban through its negotiators in Doha, Qatar.

The security situation in Afghanistan has deteriorated rapidly since President Biden announced the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan on April 14, 2021, and since May Taliban has unleashed an armed offensive in a bid to capture power in the mountainous landlocked country.

From 1996 to 2001, the Taliban had held power over roughly three-quarters of Afghanistan and enforced a strict interpretation of Sharia, or Islamic law until the U.S. led invasion in 2001 toppled their regime. Since then, the insurgents have waged a proxy war against the U.S. backed government in Kabul.