Former Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani, who fled the country prior to being taken over by the Taliban, a group of radical Islamists who seized leadership of the country after surrounding the nation’s capital, Kabul, has opened up on his decision to flee the country, saying it was necessary in order to save Kabul from imminent destruction.
According to the BBC, Ghani who was accused of abandoning the country at the time, said he had no idea leaving the country on August 15th, would be his last day in Afghanistan.
He said the decision to leave was only an afterthought after his 'terrified' security chief advised against taking a stand, saying doing so would get many killed.
As the day started, Mr Ghani recalled, Taliban fighters had agreed not to enter Kabul - "but two hours later, this was not the case".
"Two different factions of the Taliban were closing in from two different directions," Mr Ghani explained. "And the possibility of a massive conflict between them that would destroy the city of five million and bring havoc to the people was enormous."
He agreed to let his national security adviser and wife leave Kabul, then waited for a car to take him to the ministry of defence.
The car never came. Instead, the "terrified" chief of presidential security came to him to say that if Mr Ghani took a stand, "they will all be killed".
"He did not give me more than two minutes," Mr Ghani said. "My instructions had been to prepare for departure for (the city of) Khost. He told me that Khost had fallen and so had Jalalabad.
"I did not know where we will go. Only when we took off, it became clear that we were leaving (Afghanistan). So this really was sudden."
But Ghani's departure was not the only issue, he was also alleged to have fled the troubled country with huge cash.
He did deny the allegation though, saying he is open to international investigation on said allegation, to clear his name.
"I want to categorically state, I did not take any money out of the country," he said, adding: "My style of life is known to everyone. What would I do with money?" he said.
Its been four months since the Taliban took over the country. But with its government currently in almost everyone's black book, life in Afghanistan is far from returning back to normal as the Taliban struggles to keep the country afloat amidst international sanctions.