A video showing deposed Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani boarding a plane in July this year to Uzbekistan on an official visit is being shared as visuals showing him flee the country on Sunday as the Taliban seized control.
The capital city of Kabul fell to the Taliban on August 15, 2021, with the militant group taking control of the country and the Afghanistan government collapsing after Ghani fled. The offensive by the hardline Islamic militants saw provinces falling one after another, just weeks after the withdrawal of United States-led coalition troops.
Taking to social media, Ghani in a Facebook post on August 16, 2021, stated that he left the country to avoid bloodshed. Several contradicting reports suggest that he might have gone to neighbouring Uzbekistan or Tajikistan or perhaps even Oman. Russian news agency RIA quoting the Russian embassy in Kabul claimed that Ghani had fled with four cars and a helicopter full of cash.
The video shows the former president waving to onlookers as he boards a plane. The viral video is being shared with the caption, "#WATCH | Sadar Ashraf Ghani of Afghanistan fleeing the country to Tajikistan #VIRALVIDEO"
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The same video is being shared on Twitter as recent with misleading claims
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FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the viral video is from July 15, 2021, when Ashraf Ghani had left Afghanistan to attend an international summit in Uzbekistan. The video predates the fall of the Afghan government and the takeover of Kabul by the Taliban on August 15, 2021.
On breaking the video into key-frames and running a reverse image, we found search results that showed the video, stating that Ghani had left Kabul for a two-day visit to Uzbekistan on the morning of July 15.
Tolo News, a prominent media outlet in Afghanistan had tweeted the same video with the caption, "President Ashraf Ghani left Kabul this morning for a two-day visit to Uzbekistan, the Presidential Palace said."
On viewing the video, we can spot that it matches exactly with the viral video.
The Afghan government had also published a statement on the two-day visit on July 15, 2021. The statement read, "President Ashraf Ghani at the top of a high-ranking government delegation left Kabul for Uzbekistan to participate in the International Conference "Central and South Asia: Regional Connectivity; Challenges and Opportunities".."
Ghani can be seen wearing the same outfit and waving from the same plane as in the viral video.
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