'Didn't Leave Afghanistan Despite Evacuation Offers As Leaving Would Be Disgrace, Humiliation And Historic Shame': Ex-VP Saleh

Former Afghanistan Vice-President Amrullah Saleh, who had declared himself the acting President after Ashraf Ghani fled the war-torn country, has said that Ghani's escape after Taliban takeover is a "stain on the country".

Saleh further said that he didn't flee Afghanistan as he did not want to be part of the "disgrace, humiliation and historic shame" that escaping would have brought to him.

Saleh, who also served as the director of the Afghan intelligence agency National Directorate of Security from 2004 to 2010, did not leave the country after Taliban terrorists reached Kabul on 15 August. He is believed to be in the Panjshir Valley (northeast of Kabul), the country's last remaining holdout in the fight against the Taliban.

Saleh, along with Ahmed Massoud, son of slain anti-Taliban leader Ahmed Shah Massoud, is trying to form a resistance front against Taliban.

Speaking to the WION News journalist Palki Sharma on Thursday (26 August), Saleh said that he was "offered evacuation and chartered flights by friendly countries but refused".

Saleh further said, "Leaving Afghanistan would be disgrace, humiliation and historic shame, I did not want to be part of it".

Referring to Ashraf Ghani fleeing the country just before Taliban took over the Presidential Palace in Kabul, Saleh said that that his escape is a "stain on the country".