Panjwai (also spelled Panjwaye, Panjwaii, Panjway or Panjwayi) is a district in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan. It is known as the birthplace of the Taliban. It is located about 35 kilometres (22 mi) west of Kandahar city. The district borders Helmand Province to the southwest, Maywand District to the west, Zharay District to the north, Arghandab, Kandahar and Daman districts to the east and Reg District to the south. The population is 77,200 (2006). The district center is Bazar-e Panjwai, located in the northern part of the district.
Panjwayi district is a contested district by both the forces of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) on one side, and the forces of the insurgency on the other. As Panjwayi is the widely considered the spiritual home of the Taliban, the district holds important symbolic ground for the current insurgency. As such, Panjwayi is continually the site of fighting and emplacements of improvised explosive devices (IED), with the bulk of Canadian Forces' casualties taken from this district.
The recent increase in ISAF forces, brought on about by the US surge, have increase troop densities in Panjwayi, resulting in a greater ability on behalf of Afghan government and international forces to conduct operations and penetrate into former Taliban strongholds, especially villages in the "Horn" of Panjwayi such as Mushan, Talokan and Zangabad. Still, the Taliban maintain a significant psychological and physical presence in the district.
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The district was the scene of the Battle of Panjwaii involving Canadian Forces and Taliban fighters and the theatre of the ISAF Operation Medusa, September 2006. NATO claimed to have killed over 500 Taliban insurgents. [1]
On 16 November 2009 Canadian troops captured the Taliban-controlled village of Hajji Baba southwest of Kandahar City.[1]