After the Taliban took control of the Afghan capital Kabul, a video was circulated and viewed over 200,000 times on Facebook and Twitter. It shows Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fleeing the country. However, the context of the video is misleading as it is actually of the time when Ghani was travelling to a conference in Uzbekistan in July 2021. 

“President Ashraf Ghani of #Afghanistan Escape the country to Tajikistan today, along with his close assistants,” reads a Thai-language tweet posted on August 16, 2021.

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“He will continue on to another country later. Before leaving, he recorded himself in advance saying he would take responsibility for keeping the Kabul people safe if #Taliban enters Kabul. However, he abandoned his people in the end.”

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In the video, Ghani can be seen waving to onlookers while he’s boarding a plane.

On August 15, Ashrf Ghani fled Afghanistan as the Taliban sealed a nationwide military victory after it seized control of Kabul. 

Although it wasn’t confirmed where he had gone, Tolo news suggested he had gone to Tajikistan.

The video has been shared on social media across countries, including India, Germany and Pakistan. In fact, it had been circulating since before the Taliban situation in Kabir, rendering itself misleading. 

If one does a reverse image search on Google, they’ll find a similar footage published on Facebook by Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport on July 15, 2021.

The post states the video shows Ghani boarding a plane to Uzbekistan for a conference.

A keyword search on Google led to an Afghan government statement published on July 15, 2021.

“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,” the statement reads.

As of August 17, there is no official footage of Ghani leaving Afghanistan.