Amrullah Saleh

Amrullah Saleh (Pashto/Dari: امرالله صالح, Dari pronunciation: [amrʊlˈlɒːh sɒːˈleː(h)]; 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.