Amrullah Saleh

Amrullah Saleh (Pashto/, ; born 15 October 1972) is an Afghan politician who served as the first vice president of Afghanistan from February 2020 to August 2021, and acting interior minister from 2018 to 2019.

Saleh was born on 15 October 1972 in the Panjshir region of what was then the Kingdom of Afghanistan.

He is an ethnic Tajik.

Saleh spent much of his childhood in the capital city of Kabul.

He was orphaned at the age of 7, resulting in severe financial hardship for his family.

Saleh is the youngest of five brothers.

In his youth, two of his brothers died in politically motivated killings.

Another of his brothers, Rohullah Azizi, was executed by the Taliban in September 2021.

In 1990, in order to avoid being conscripted into the Soviet-backed Afghan army, Saleh joined the opposition mujahideen forces.

He received military training in neighboring Pakistan and fought under mujahideen commander Ahmad Shah Massoud.

In the late 1990s, Saleh was a member of the Northern Alliance (also known as the United Front) and was fighting against the Taliban expansion.

In October 1996, Amarullah Saleh arranged a meeting between Bharath Raj Muthu Kumar and Ahmad Shah Massoud to arrange equipment and help from New Delhi.

In 1997, Saleh became the head of the Northern Alliance's liaison office inside the Afghan Embassy in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, handling contacts with international non-governmental organizations and intelligence agencies.

As head of the NDS, Saleh directed efforts to infiltrate the Taliban and locate Osama bin Laden.

In 1997, Saleh was appointed by Massoud to lead the United Front's international liaison office at the Embassy of Afghanistan in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, where he served as a coordinator for non-governmental (humanitarian) organizations and as a liaison partner for foreign intelligence agencies.

After the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, Saleh participated in leading intelligence operations of the United Front on the ground during the toppling of the Taliban regime.

He was the head of the National Directorate of Security (NDS) from 2004 to 2010.

A member of the mujahideen during the civil war against Afghanistan's communist government, Saleh later joined Ahmad Shah Massoud's Northern Alliance, an anti-Taliban coalition in the northeast of the country.

After the formation of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in December 2004, Saleh was appointed as head of the National Directorate of Security (NDS) by President Hamid Karzai.

Saleh initiated structural reforms and helped rebuild the Afghan intelligence service.

Saleh and former interior minister Hanif Atmar were viewed by the international community as two of the most competent cabinet members in the Afghan government.

A western security expert told The Guardian that both men had a reputation for "clearing corruption within" their organs.

In 2005, Saleh engaged several NDS agents infiltrating the Pakistani tribal areas to search for bin Laden and other al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders.

Several al-Qaeda members could be identified, but it was determined that Bin Laden was not in the area.

In 2006, Saleh was presented with evidence that bin Laden was living in a major settled area of Pakistan just 20 miles from the town of Abbottabad, Pakistan.

He shared the intelligence with former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf who angrily brushed off the claim, taking no action.

After Saleh sent Pashto-speaking agents to infiltrate the Taliban's operations in Pakistan, the NDS gathered information on militants' homes, mosques, businesses, and families.

Saleh resigned from the NDS in 2010 amidst worsening relations with President Hamid Karzai, founding Basej-e Milli ("National Movement"), a pro-democracy and anti-Taliban political party, shortly afterward.

His elder sister, Mariam, who died in 2015, was tortured by the Taliban in 1996 in an attempt to uncover his location.

Saleh has three daughters and two sons with his wife.

He speaks fluent English and has a basic knowledge of Russian.

In March 2017, he was appointed State Minister for Security Reforms by President Ashraf Ghani, serving until his resignation in June of that year.

Saleh became the acting Minister of Interior Affairs in December 2018, but resigned less than a month later to become Ghani's running mate for first vice president in the 2019 presidential election.

Ghani's ticket won the election, and Saleh became first vice president on 25 February 2020.

Saleh was a powerful political figure in Afghanistan and has been the target of numerous assassination attempts.

An outspoken critic of the Taliban and Pakistan, Saleh has been described as combative and as having a hard-working nature.

Following the fall of Kabul to the Taliban on 15 August 2021, Ghani fled the country and Saleh relocated to the Panjshir Valley.

There, Saleh proclaimed himself the caretaker president of Afghanistan and announced the formation of the National Resistance Front, an anti-Taliban resistance movement, alongside Ahmad Massoud.

Saleh fled to Tajikistan shortly after the Taliban seized control of Panjshir on 6 September 2021.

He continues to support the NRF from exile, though he has failed to receive any international support for his claim to the presidency.