Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has left Afghanistan for Tajikistan as Taliban closes in on Kabul, according to several media reports.
Asked for comment, the president’s office told Reuters it could not comment on Ashraf Ghani’s move for security reasons.
Meanwhile, a Taliban official told Reuters they were looking into reports of Ghani leaving the country.
Good bye Waving hand Ghani
Now INSHAALLAH future of Afghanistan will be bright & secured.#Taliban#Afghanistan#Kabul pic.twitter.com/s01XNL3K5J— 𝐄ߋߊn ᛖߎsƙ (@JohnCar60550732) August 15, 2021
Taliban and Afghan government officials are in negotiations for a peaceful transfer of power after fighters encircled the capital Kabul.
Taliban troops surrounded Afghanistan’s seat of power on Sunday but promised not to attack as handover talks were under way.
The group said it has instructed its fighters to refrain from violence and offer safe passage to anyone wishing to leave Kabul.
“Until the completion of the transition process, the responsibility for the security of Kabul is with the other side (the Afghan government),” a spokesman for the group said in a tweet.
The Afghan government soon after signalled there were negotiations under way to avoid bloodshed in Kabul and to transition power.
In Pictures: Taliban mass ‘at the gates’ of Kabul
Taliban fighters surrounded Afghanistan’s capital Kabul on Sunday as the world waited to see what negotiations around a transfer of power would result in.
Taliban forces patrol a street in Herat [Reuters]The armed group seized nearly all of Afghanistan in just over a week, sending thousands of internally displaced people fleeing the fighting to Kabul, seeking safety.
Taliban fighters and local residents sit on an Afghan National Army vehicle in Laghman province [AFP]In spite of hundreds of billions of dollars spent by the US and NATO to build up Afghan security forces, the Taliban swiftly defeated, co-opted, or sent Afghan security forces fleeing from wide swaths of the country.
A Taliban fighter stands guard in the city of Ghazni [Reuters]Fighters remained “at the city’s gates” as sporadic gunfire was heard in streets that were largely quiet.
More photos here.
