Last president of Afghanistan says his Facebook account was hacked when it posted a message telling people to accept Taliban rule

• Ashraf Ghani's Facebook page said the world must "extend a hand of friendship" to the Taliban.
• His Twitter account later said the Facebook page was hacked.
• Ghani fled Afghanistan for the UAE on August 15, the day the Taliban seized Kabul.

The last president of Afghanistan says his Facebook account was hacked after it posted a message telling people to support the Taliban.

A post was shared on Ashraf Ghani's verified Facebook page at 12:15 p.m. Afghanistan time on Monday, which said the world should engage with the Taliban government.

"The international community should interact with the current government instead of alienating the Afghan people," it said.

"The world must understand that if Afghanistan wants a prosperous and secure Afghanistan, it must extend a hand of friendship. It cannot be influenced by hostility as it has experienced in the last twenty years."

But 30 minutes after the Facebook post was published, Ghani's verified Twitter account said his Facebook account had been hacked, saying that anything published from Sunday onwards was "no longer valid."

Ghani had fled Afghanistan for the UAE on August 15, the day the Taliban took Kabul.

He later said he did it to try and avoid bloodshed: "Leaving Kabul was the most difficult decision of my life, but I believed it was the only way to keep the guns silent and save Kabul and her 6 million citizens," he said.

Ghani's Facebook post was still on the page as of 1:30 p.m. Afghanistan time on Monday.