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New Delhi, Dec 23 (IANS) General Ajmal Omar Shinwari, spokesman for the armed forces of the former Republic of Afghanistan, said there was an alert in August that the intelligence of the neighbouring country (read Pakistan) had hatched a plot to assassinate then Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani, Taand News reported.
Shinwari disclosed this for the first time in a televised interview on the fall of the regime.
He revealed in an interview that five days before the fall of the regime (Sunday, August 15), at a meeting of the National Security Council, information about a plot to assassinate President Ghani was leaked and shared with security official, the report said.
According to him, it was said at the meeting that the intelligence of the neighbouring country (read Pakistan) had hatched a plot to assassinate President Ghani, the report said.
Ajmal Shinwari also said that no document was presented at the meeting regarding this information, but it was said that the lives of some members of the government leadership besides the President were in danger.
In the interview, the former security and defence spokesman accused the President and other high-ranking officials and politicians outside the government of playing their part in the fall of the Republic.
However, he stressed that on the day of the fall of the Republic, the Ministers of Interior and National Defense and the Director General of National Security were in their offices until 5:30 p.m.
According to the former military spokesman, the Presidential Palace was evacuated on the same day and the President left the country, after which the leaders of the security and defence sectors left their office, the report said.
Ajmal Shinwari also said that the military leadership should have taken over the reins of the country after the political turmoil like other countries and prevented the fall.
The former Afghan general acknowledged that senior members of the security and defence forces were appointed on the basis of bias, corruption and injustice, and that these appointments had dire consequence, the report said.
Shinwari made the remarks after ousted President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani said in a video message after leaving Afghanistan: "Citizens of a neighbouring country, along with the Taliban, were returning to the palace after my departure."
The Taliban have denied any involvement in the plot to assassinate Ghani and his entourage.
--IANS
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