Panic gripped Kabul on Sunday after the Taliban swept into the city and took over the abandoned presidential palace.
The Afghan government has collapsed and the embattled president, Ashraf Ghani fled abroad with an exodus of his fellow citizens and foreigners.
President Ashraf Ghani flew out of the country on Sunday afternoon as the insurgents closed in.
The unfolding event signals the end of a two-decade-long U.S. and NATO campaign to restructure the country.
Ghani in a Facebook post claimed he fled out of the country to prevent bloodshed in the presidential palace.
He asserted that the decision was taken to prevent the city from being enmeshed in a critical humanitarian crisis.
“Today I came across a tough choice. I have to either face the armed Taliban who wants to enter the palace or leave the country where I have dedicated my life to protecting and nurturing for the last 20 years.
“If left unchecked, countless patriots would be martyred and the city of Kabul would be devastated, resulting in a major humanitarian catastrophe in the six-million-strong city.
“The Taliban had made it clear that they were ready to carry out a bloody attack on all of Kabul and the people of Kabul Sharif to oust me. In order to prevent a flood of bloodshed, I decided to leave,” he said.
Reuters reported that the Afghanistan President left the capital Kabul for Tajikistan, a neighboring country.
However, Ghani’s choice is not without backlash from Afghans.
“The former president of Afghanistan left Afghanistan, leaving the country in this difficult situation, God should hold him accountable,” Abdullah Abdullah, the head of the Afghan National Reconciliation Council and a longtime rival of Ghani was quoted to have said.
Afghanistan’s acting defense minister, Bismillah Khan Mohammadi, blasted the president for absconding, leaving the city in the hands of the insurgents.
“They tied our hands from behind and sold the country,” he wrote on Twitter. “Curse Ghani and his gang.”
The tension in the country is heightened by the possibility that the insurgent could impose a brutal rule and eliminate women’s rights.
Although the group through its spokesperson, Suhail Shaheen had said women will be granted freedom, reports from areas already captured suggest women’s rights are being eradicated.
The Taliban started actively taking over different parts of the country after U.S. President, Joe Biden, announced plans to withdraw all American troops.
Within the space of two weeks, the group had seized nearly all of Afghanistan.
This is despite the billions of dollars spent by the U.S. and NATO over nearly 20 years to build up Afghan security forces.
An American military assessment had estimated that the capital would not come under insurgent pressure for at least a month just a few days back.
Speaking on the crisis, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, urged countries not to recognize the Taliban.
“We don’t want anybody bilaterally recognizing the Taliban. We want a united position amongst all the like-minded as far as we can get one,” he said.
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