Ghani says Facebook page hacked after post seeks global support for Taliban

Statement on ex-president's official page called upon int'l community to engage with Taliban and unfreeze assets

Ousted Afghan president Ashraf Ghani has claimed that his official Facebook page was hacked yesterday after a post urging international community to support Taliban-led government shocked everyone.

The wordy statement on Ghani’s FB page purportedly posted by unidentified hackers on Sunday called upon the international community to engage with the Taliban government and unfreeze their assets.

Breaking news: Former Afghan President @ashrafghani through his official FB account shows direct support to the Taliban government and urges the international community
- interact with the Taliban govt
- recognize them
- support them
- unfreeze the Afghan assets abroad pic.twitter.com/WlPM6mnwh6

— Ab. Sayed ترمذی سادات (@abdsayedd) September 27, 2021

However, Ghani on Monday issued a clarification, saying, “Last night my Facebook page was attacked by a cyberattack that caused the page to be out of control for a few hours.”

With the help of the South Asian administration of the social media giant, Ghani said, he recovered his FB page.

عاجل
صفحه فیس‌بوک رسمی داکتر محمد اشرف غنی، هک گردیده. الی دوباره بدست آوردن آن، محتویات نشر شده از دیروز بدینسو در صفحه فیس‌بوک فاقد اعتبار می‌باشد.

— Ashraf Ghani (@ashrafghani) September 27, 2021

Ghani, who fled the country last month as the Taliban entered Kabul, apologised earlier this month to the Afghan people, as "he could not make it end differently".

In a statement on Twitter, Ghani said that he left at the urging of the palace security in order to avoid the risk of bloody street fighting and again denied stealing millions from the treasury.

Ghani regretted that his "own chapter" ended in a tragedy similar to his predecessors and that he had to leave Kabul without ensuring stability and prosperity in Afghanistan.

"Leaving Kabul was the most difficult decision of my life, but I believed that it was the only way to keep the guns silent and save Kabul and her 6 million citizens," the statement read.

It went on to add, "I have devoted 20 years of my life to helping the Afghan people work toward building a democratic, prosperous, and sovereign state – it was never my intent to abandon the people or that vision."

In response to allegations made by the spokesperson of the Russian embassy in Kabul, Ashraf Ghani denied that he fled Afghanistan with "four cars and a chopper full of cash".