The bodyguard of Ashraf Ghani has made sensational revelations about the former Afghan president. The bodyguard had claimed that he has a CCTV footage of Ghani fleeing the country with money.
Brigadier General Piraj Ata Sharifi, Ghani's chief of security, said he had CCTV footage of Ghani fleeing with bags containing hundreds of millions of dollars of public money. If a country like Britain or America can save him, then he is ready to make this evidence public.
Ex-Bodyguard Details Escape
"I have a recording which shows that an individual at the Afghan Bank brought a lot of money to Ghani before he left," the man told UK's Daily Mail newspaper. "Hundreds of millions, perhaps billions of dollars. There were many big bags, and they were heavy. It was not rice."
"This money was supposed to be for the currency exchange market. Each Thursday, the dollars were brought for that purpose. Instead, it was taken by the president. Ghani knew in the end what would happen. So he took all the money and escaped," he added. According to the ex-bodyguard, the former president had also taken up arms while fleeing Afghanistan.
Sharifi hid in the basement of a house in Dzhalal-Abad after the arrival of the Taliban. Five months ago, Sharifi was sitting at a table in a conference with Sir Nick Carter, a very senior British soldier. Sharifi was the 20th highest official in the Afghan government.
Ex-Bodyguard on Taliban's Most Wanted List
Sharifi is currently included in the Taliban's most wanted list. In such a situation, he is hiding at a secret hideout. Sharif stated that he felt "betrayed" over being left behind by those whom he protected. "If the Taliban come here, I will kill myself. If they capture me they will kill me anyway," he told Daily Mail.
Posters at Taliban security positions all over Kabul show the general's mugshot and the following words: "[This is] General Piraz Sharifi, who also has the nickname Ata."
"He was the special guard of the president. He has 300 weapons with him now. If you know about the person or his location, you should inform the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. There is a reward for such information of one million Afghanis."
One million Afghanis is the equivalent of £10,000 — a fortune in a country in which 90 per cent of the people are surviving on less than £1.60 a day, reported Daily Mail.
Ghani's Swift Departure
Ghani fled the country along with other officials soon after Taliban entered Kabul on August 15. In a lengthy Facebook post, Ghani said he left Afghanistan to avoid bloodshed. Many in Afghanistan condemned the fugitive President's escape, and social media too was not far behind.
Many Afghans accused Ghani of "lying to the people this whole time" and of "keeping the Afghan people in the dark".
