Former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani described the victory march in Kabul to escape the Taliban on Thursday, saying that the decision was made within “minutes” and he didn’t know he was leaving the country until he took off. .
Ghani told BBC Radio 4’s “Today” program that on the morning of August 15, 2021, the day when Islamists control the capital and his own government collapsed, he “did not know” that it would be him. The last day in Afghanistan.

But in the afternoon, the security of the presidential palace “collapsed,” he said.

“If I take a stand, they will all be killed, and they cannot defend me,” Ghani said in an interview conducted by the former British Chief of Staff, General Nick Carter.

Ghani said that his national security adviser Hamdullah Mohib was “really scared.” “He didn’t give me more than two minutes.”

He said that his instructions were initially to fly to the southeast of Khost by helicopter.

But Horst fell in a lightning attack by the Islamists, and in the days before the international forces withdrew at the end of August, provincial capitals across the country were overthrown.

He said that the eastern city of Jalalabad, which borders Pakistan, has also fallen.

“I don’t know where we will go,” Gani said.

“Only when we took off did we understand that we were leaving.”

Since then, Ghani has been in the United Arab Emirates.

He has been highly criticized for leaving in Afghanistan. Afghans are now trapped under the harsh rule of the Taliban, accusing him of abandoning them-and taking away millions of dollars in cash, which he once again “categorically” denied on Thursday. .

The former World Bank official has issued multiple statements before admitting that he owes an account to the Afghan people. Thursday was his first interview.

He once again stated that his first concern is to prevent brutal street fighting in the capital, which is already crowded with tens of thousands of refugees fleeing violence in other parts of the country.

He said his decision to leave was “the hardest thing.”

“I had to sacrifice myself to save Kabul and expose the truth of the situation: a violent coup, not a political agreement.”

But even if he stayed, he said that he could not change the outcome, and the Taliban established their new regime when the country faced one of the worst humanitarian crises in history.

“Unfortunately, I was painted completely black,” he said. “This has become a problem for the United States. It is not a problem for Afghanistan.”

He said: “My life’s work was ruined, my values ​​were trampled, and I became a scapegoat.”

He said that Afghans “rightly” blamed him. “I fully understand that anger, because I also have that anger.”

Complete News Source : NDTV