Afghanistan's well-known female pop star Aryana Sayeed on Tuesday slammed ousted Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and called him a "coward" for leaving the country in the hands of a bunch of Pakistanis.
In an exclusive interview with ANI from an undisclosed location, she said, "I am truly disappointed with the President (Ashraf Ghani), the way he left Afghanistan in hands of a bunch of Pakistanis. He let down our people, our country, our armed forces and military. How could we fight without any leaders?"
"I was very sad and pissed off from him for what he did, that was very coward of him. The day we were leaving Afghanistan on August 15th, he was still giving speeches promising people that everything will be alright. But within the next few hours he disappeared," she added.
Talking about the speed at which the Taliban took over the war-torn country, Sayeed added, "I am really disappointed, to begin with. I am disappointed that they left Afghanistan alone just like that and the Taliban took over the entire Afghanistan within a span of few days, it's unbelievable to me."
Meanwhile, she praised the efforts of Afghanistan's "acting" President Amrullah Saleh and Ahmad Massoud, son of renowned anti-Taliban figure Ahmad Shah Massoud for challenging the Taliban in the Panjshir valley. "Whatever is happening now in Panjshir, it's very brave of them, appreciate that but at the same time, I fear Afghanistan going back to the civil war which is scary. We have been through that and I don't want Afghanistan to go through that once again, I am really concerned," said Sayeed.
She also took a dig at international powers for leaving Afghanistan in the middle of nowhere. "I mean look at all these superpower countries who initially went there and they said our reason of going there is to get rid of Al Qaeda, get rid of Taliban and then after being there for twenty years and spending millions and millions of dollars, lives of all those soldiers lost there, suddenly they decided to leave Afghanistan and come out and this is something so shocking to me," Sayeed told ANI.
Sayeed also appealed to the international community not to forget about Afghanistan and its people who are living in misery now.
"My hope is from the international community to not forget about Afghanistan. Don't forget about the Afghan nationals because it's not their fault they are living in misery now and millions of people in Afghanistan women and children they don''t deserve what they are going through now."
She urged them to put some pressure on Pakistan and also blamed the country for the current crisis in Afghanistan by empowering the Taliban.
"I hope they can put some pressure on Pakistan, I personally believe that the current crisis in Afghanistan is because of Pakistan. Taliban are being funded by Pakistan, they are being instructed by Pakistan, their bases are in Pakistan where they get trained. So I hope the international community, first of all, cut their fund and they don''t give funds to Pakistan so that they don't have enough money to fund Taliban," said Sayeed.
She asked the Taliban to think about humanity and advised them to not treat innocent people the way they did twenty years ago.
"I just hope that they will think about humanity, they should think that you know, they shouldn't treat innocent people the way they did twenty years ago," she added.
During the Taliban's rule in Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001, brutal floggings, amputations and public executions were commonplace.
Women were largely confined to their homes and the death penalty was in place for offenses including female adultery, homosexuality and the rejection of Islam.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
