200 INDIANS, EMBASSY STAFF STUCK IN KABUL

New Delhi, Aug. 16: India on Monday said it will take all steps to ensure the safety of nearly 200 Indians, including Indian embassy staffers and security personnel from Kabul after the Taliban seized the Afghan capital on Sunday.

Monday morning witnessed a flutter after derogatory comments on deposed Afghan President Ashraf Ghani were posted from the twitter account of the Afghan Embassy in New Delhi but the Embassy’s press secretary Abdulhaq Azad tweeted to say the account seemed to have been hacked and that he could not gain access to it.

The Afghan President had fled the country on Sunday reportedly to neighbouring Tajikistan, after the Taliban entered the Afghan capital Kabul.

The derogatory messages obviously posted by the hackers to please the Taliban claimed that Ghani’s legacy was a stain on Afghanistan and labelled him a “traitor” and “fugitive” and his close aides as “crooks”, adding that

Afghans were “banging their heads in shame” at his conduct as President.

It may be noted that India had strongly backed the Government of President Ghani for several years.

“I have lost access to Twitter handle of @AfghanistanInIN, a friend sent a screen shot of this tweet, (this tweet is hidden from me.) I have tried to log in but can’t access. Seems it is hacked,” Haq tweeted. Afghan ambassador Farid Mamundzay retweeted Haq’s tweet.

The Afghan Embassy issued a statement, saying, “Since morning, the official Twitter account of the Afghan Embassy in India has been hacked by unknown persons who spread some unrelated messages. Embassy officials are in touch with the Twitter administration to solve the problem.”