Who is Amrullah Saleh, the former spy who declared himself legitimate 'caretaker president' of Afghanistan?

Amrullah Saleh, First Vice President of Afghanistan (File image: Reuters)

On August 17, Afghanistan's defiant First Vice President Amrullah Saleh declared himself "legitimate caretaker president" after President Ashraf Ghani fled the country as Taliban insurgents took capital Kabul.

Saleh took to Twitter to announce that he is the caretaker president of Afghanistan, in accordance with the country's constitution which allows him to take over the post in absence of the incumbent president.

Clarity: As per d constitution of Afg, in absence, escape, resignation or death of the President the FVP becomes the caretaker President. I am currently inside my country & am the legitimate care taker President. Am reaching out to all leaders to secure their support & consensus.

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— Amrullah Saleh (@AmrullahSaleh2) August 17, 2021

A former spy, Saleh, 48, has not left the country and is currently in Panjshir Valley, northeast of Kabul, which is still free from Taliban control.

Saleh has been organising support to resist the Taliban. Ahmad Massoud and Defence Minister Bismillah Mohammadi have also promised to side with him. Ahmad is the son of the slain commander Ahmad Shah Massoud during whose lifetime the Taliban could not conquer Panjshir Valley in its last regime between 1996 and 2001. 

I will never, ever & under no circumstances bow to d Talib terrorists. I will never betray d soul & legacy of my hero Ahmad Shah Masoud, the commander, the legend & the guide. I won't dis-appoint millions who listened to me. I will never be under one ceiling with Taliban. NEVER.

— Amrullah Saleh (@AmrullahSaleh2) August 15, 2021

On August 15, Saleh asserted that he will not surrender. A day later, on August 16, his pictures emerged on social media where he was seen with Ahmad Massoud in Panjshir. The flag of the ‘Northern Alliance’ or the United Islamic Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan has been reportedly hoisted for the first time since 2001 in Panjshir valley.

A former spy-turned-politician

Born in October 1972 in Panjshir in what was then the Kingdom of Afghanistan, Saleh who belongs to the Tajik ethnic group was orphaned at a very young age.

Read: Abdul Ghani Baradar: The political face of Taliban's victory in Afghanistan

He has served as the fifth first vice president of Afghanistan. He was the minister of interior affairs of Afghanistan in 2018 and 2019. After the September 11, 2001 attacks, Saleh, then a part of the anti-Taliban resistance, became a key asset for the CIA, an AFP report said.

He then went on to lead the newly-formed Afghanistan intelligence agency, the National Security Directorate (NDS), in 2004. The intelligence Saleh gathered as NDS chief provided what he alleged was proof the Pakistani military continued to back the Taliban.

Follow Money Control's Afghanistan-Taliban Crisis for LIVE Updates 

In 2010, however, Saleh was sacked as Afghanistan's spy chief following a humiliating attack on a Kabul peace conference leaving him in the political wilderness.

In 2018, he returned as in charge of the interior ministry in President Ashraf Ghani’s dispensation.  On January 19, Saleh resigned as the interior minister to join Ashraf Ghani's election team. Following Ghani's re-election, Saleh was appointed as First Vice President of Afghanistan in January 2019.

Assassination Attempts

Saleh has survived many assassination bids. On September 9, 2020, Saleh was wounded by a bomb attack in Kabul, in which ten people were killed. On July 28, 2019, three militants entered Saleh's office in Kabul after a suicide bomber blew himself up killing 20 people. While Saleh survived, he lost many colleagues and two nephews in the attack.

Also, read: US military evacuated more than 3,200 people so far from Kabul: White House

"Sure, and if they kill me, I have told my family and my friends not to complain about anything, because I have killed many of them with pride, so, I am a very, very legitimate target, very legitimate, because when I stand against them, the desire to stand against them is part of my blood. I believe they are wrong," he said in a '60 Minutes' interview in December 2009.

An aide of Ahmad Shah Massoud

Before heading the Afghan intelligence, Saleh was a member of late guerilla fighter Ahmad Shah Massoud's Northern Alliance that took on the Taliban when it came to power in 1996. Saleh’s sister was tortured to death by Taliban fighters in 1996, according to an AFP report.

"My view of the Taliban changed forever because of what happened in 1996," Saleh wrote in a Time magazine editorial last year.

Also, read: Escorted by Taliban: India's midnight evacuation from Afghanistan

Ahmad Shah Massoud was a powerful guerrilla commander during the resistance against the Soviet occupation between 1979 and 1989. In the 1990s, he led the government's military after the Taliban takeover.  Massoud was the leading opposition commander against their regime until his assassination in 2001.