Amrullah Saleh: ‘The President’, the resistance chief and the politician who has lengthy been warning the world in opposition to Pakistan

Even after twenty years of long-drawn-out struggle, Afghanistan stays on the cusp of a disaster because the US forces unceremoniously pull in a foreign country, leaving helpless Afghans on the mercy of their radical Taliban rulers.
The state of affairs got here to move after Kabul fell to the Taliban on the fifteenth of August as President Ashraf Ghani made a run from the nation. In a blitzkrieg, the Taliban managed to seize the entire of Afghanistan in a matter of few weeks following the US president Joe Biden’s announcement that he would honour the withdrawal settlement signed by his predecessor Donald Trump. The pace at which the Afghan Government collapsed got here as a shock to many, with Afghan troopers leaving the pressure to affix the ranks of the Taliban.
With the president having already fled to the United Arab Emirates and scores of Afghan troopers both surrendering or becoming a member of the Talibani ranks, it appeared just like the Taliban wouldn’t face any credible resistance in overthrowing the final vestiges of the Afghan authorities and establishing its supremacy within the nation.
Panic and chaos gripped the nation, with hundreds of individuals streaming to the Kabul airport fearing the return of the oppressive rule harking back to the Taliban rule within the late 90s. Just when it appeared that the Taliban rule is imminent and unchallenged, the Vice President of Afghanistan below the Ashraf Ghani authorities, Amrullah Saleh, stepped as much as the plate and determined that he wouldn’t go down with out giving a battle to the fundamentalist group.
On August 17, simply two days after the Taliban stormed Kabul, Saleh staked declare to the presidency of the nation because the official caretaker president. He cited the structure of Afghanistan and mentioned, within the occasion of the escape, absence, resignation or loss of life of the president, the Vice President turns into the caretaker president.
Amrullah Saleh mentioned that since he’s nonetheless in Afghanistan, he’s the official caretaker president and subsequently, he’s reaching out to leaders to safe their assist and consensus. He introduced that he was in Panjshir Valley — the final anti-Taliban bastion in authorities’s management, and would proceed to place up a courageous entrance to oust the Taliban. As Saleh, together with Ahmad Massoud and different key leaders mobilised a resistance pressure to battle in opposition to the Taliban, he shortly turned the face and the chief of the Afghan resistance in opposition to the Taliban onslaught.
The Afghan troopers and warlords, who at the moment are being hunted by the Taliban, are reportedly headed to the Panjshir Valley to affix the resistance group. Saleh has indicated that he’s decided to battle the Taliban to the final bullet and has praised the Afghan troopers for taking arms in opposition to the phobia group. He has additionally invited commandos and particular forces, to affix the resistance motion in opposition to the Taliban.
Amrullah Saleh, Vice President of Afghanistan and Ahmad Massoud, son of Ahmad Shah Massoud noticed in Panjshir.They are bringing all Anti-Taliban commanders collectively in Panjshir. This province continues to be free from Taliban. pic.twitter.com/bgb8hUdfwi— Sudhir Chaudhary (@sudhirchaudhary) August 16, 2021
In his latest interview, Saleh mentioned the Taliban rule in Afghanistan has its days numbered. He asserted that the fundamentalist legal guidelines of the Taliban are unacceptable to the individuals of Afghanistan, including that the group gained’t final lengthy within the nation. Saleh mentioned the Taliban neither has exterior nor has inner legitimacy and they’d quickly face a “deep military crisis” as areas moreover Panjshir would begin mounting resistance in opposition to them.
Who is Amrullah Saleh?
Amrullah Saleh, 48, belongs to the Tajik ethnic group and was born in October 1972 in Panjshir Valley, 150 km north of the capital Kabul. Right from a younger age, Saleh harboured deep aversion in direction of the USSR for his or her meddling in Afghanistan and joined the Northern Alliance throughout the civil struggle within the Nineteen Nineties that culminated within the 1992 ouster of Mohammed Najibullah, Afghanistan’s USSR-backed ruler. He had even travelled to Pakistan the place he acquired mujahideen coaching to battle in opposition to the Soviet-backed Afghan military.
Later within the Nineteen Nineties, the Northern Alliance, of which Saleh was an element, was embroiled in combating in opposition to the Pakistan-sponsored Taliban regime in Afghanistan. The Taliban terrorists in 1996 carried out a manhunt to search out Saleh however as an alternative, they received maintain of his elder sister Mariam, who was tortured and subjected to unspeakable atrocities. She later managed to flee the Taliban and fled Kabul together with her household. Nevertheless, the incident had a long-lasting impression on Saleh and it fully modified his view concerning the Taliban.
In 1997, Saleh was appointed to the Northern Alliance’s liaison workplace in Tajikistan. There he dealt with contacts with worldwide NGOs and companies. India had then refused to acknowledge the Taliban rule over Afghanistan over the intelligence evaluation that the group was backed by Pakistan’s ISI.
As per reviews, it was additionally Saleh, who had coordinated contact between Indian officers and Ahmed Shah Massoud, facilitating India’s assist in medical provides, arms and ammunition to the Massoud-led resistance in opposition to Taliban by way of the Tajikstan city of Farkhor.
His journey from being a spy to Afghan politics
Then in 2004, three years after the US-led NATO forces toppled the Talibani regime in Afghanistan, Saleh entered into the sector of espionage. He was then appointed as the pinnacle of Afghanistan’s intelligence company and served within the workplace for six years till 2010. While in workplace he was thought of a key asset to the CIA. During his time in workplace, he was additionally reportedly censorious of President Hamid Karzai’s reasonable stance on the Taliban and his undue dependence on Pakistan. In 2011, Saleh established the Basej-e Milli political celebration to oppose the Taliban.
Six years later, in 2017, Saleh joined palms with President Ashraf Ghani and was subsequently made Interior Minister the next 12 months. Then in February 2020, he was elevated to the submit of nation’s vp.
Saleh has continued to be the thorn within the aspect of the Taliban and there have been a number of makes an attempt to assassinate the previous vp of Afghanistan. In September 2020, an try was made to kill Saleh. Although he emerged unscathed from the assault, 10 bystanders have been killed. The assault befell on September 9, 2020, two days earlier than 9/11 and on the anniversary of the killing of Ahmed Shah Massoud.
Saleh’s stand on Pakistan and its symbiotic relationship with the Taliban
Over the years, Saleh has not minced his phrases in voicing his acerbic and forthright evaluation of Pakistan. He has remained one of the crucial trenchant critics of Pakistan, accusing them of aiding the Taliban and deceiving its western allies by utilizing the alms and grants it receives from them in arming the terrorists. In his latest interviews following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, Saleh has blamed Pakistan for serving to the Taliban idiot the worldwide group by collaborating in Doha talks, whereas utilizing that point to prop up navy powers.
“Pakistan was not only a safe haven for the Taliban terrorists but the entire country was under the service of the terror group. The US tried to persuade Pakistan into cooperation, often by offering them incentives, but the more they paid, the more it emboldened the Pakistanis to extend their support to the Taliban tacitly. Therefore, the issue of a nuclear state facilitating and promoting terrorism and insurgency against western allies in Afghanistan was never really addressed,” Saleh opined.
In an interview with the Indian Express in September 2019, Saleh mentioned the Taliban will get its arms and ammunition from the Pakistani ISI and the military. He alleged that Pakistan’s interference in Afghanistan has turn into so crystal clear and clear that the Taliban can now not cover behind any masks to assert that their insurrection is natural.
Saleh had additionally famously likened the Taliban with Khmer Rouge, stating that the previous was worse than the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK) that wreaked havoc in Cambodia between 1975 to 1979.
“All their politburo are based in Pakistan and are not showing their faces. They can’t face the reality of new Afghanistan which is no longer buying the notion of armed struggle to solve political issues. Without Pakistan’s support, the Taliban would fade away in six months,” Saleh mentioned whereas highlighting how Pakistan is the explanation behind the Taliban’s survival.
Regarding Donald Trump’s technique on Afghanistan, Saleh mentioned it’s an acknowledgement of the truth that Pakistan has been enjoying a deleterious and doubtful position in offering assist and secure haven to terrorists and brokers of chaos. He urged Washington to pressurise Islamabad and its highly effective military till they mend their methods and cease nourishing the Taliban and different terrorist teams.
In his 2011 interview with CBS News, a small clip of which is now going viral on the web, Saleh referred to as Pakistan a treacherous ally and exhorted the United States to actually bomb the phobia hideouts in Pakistan to finish the menace of the Taliban completely.
“The amount of pain Pakistan has inflicted on the United States in the last twelve years is unprecedented. No other country has meted out that amount of pain on your nation(The United States)…We had numbers of senior Talibani leaders hiding in Pakistan’s Quetta, their locations as well. The US could have taken them down in no time. But they chose to sit on the intelligence because they were labouring under the delusion that Pakistan is an ally and it is extending cooperation to them in their fight against terrorism,” Saleh mentioned.

“If you look at the problems that the United States faces in the central Asia region, they will realise that all of those will lead them to Pakistan. Be it shoring up the terrorists, the attacks in Afghanistan by the Taliban, nuclear proliferation or any other issue, Pakistan has been the hub of the problems,” Saleh mentioned.
Saleh’s criticism of the US for consistenly ignoring his warnings and leaving Afghanistan within the lurk
Amrullah has additionally been severely crucial of the United States for pursuing a mercurial and severely damaging coverage with respect to eliminating the Taliban. On August 31, because the US drawdown of its forces got here to an finish amidst the Taliban take over of the nation, Saleh posted a scathing tweet in opposition to the United States, asserting that Afghanistan was not packed within the bag of the final US soldier.
It is price noting that ever because the United States determined to drag out from Afghanistan within the late 2010s, Saleh has been warning them in opposition to it, reminding them that the enemy is way from defeated and their allies like Pakistan have been offering a conducive atmosphere to their enemy for recuperation and restoration. But, Saleh’s warnings had fallen on deaf ears as Washington refused to take note of his recommendation and dug its heels in pursuing a disastrous method to the Afghan disaster.
“We failed in persuading them to reverse their decision. I had been issuing warnings to them of these kinds of ramifications for two years. But they did not heed to my alarm. They are now paying the price. This was a political decision, not a military or intelligence one.. one political misjudgment by the US has brought this situation to Afghanistan today. It wasn’t the Taliban who won this war, it was the lack of a political will in Washington that led to this,” Saleh lately mentioned in his interview with CNN News 18.
On Tuesday this week, Saleh reiterated his place on the US pullout from Afghanistan. He quoted a tweet posted by Tarek Fatah that carried an interview clip from 2009 the place he expressed his views on the prospect of the United States leaving Afghanistan halfway, with out fully eliminating the specter of the Taliban.
Afgh wasn’t packed & put within the bag of the final US solider The nation is right here. D rivers are flowing & d mountains are majestic. Talibs R an unpopular proxy pressure & hated that’s the reason the entire nation needs to flee from them. A brilliant energy determined to be mini energy that’s OK. https://t.co/5cDR1lTNz3— Amrullah Saleh (@AmrullahSaleh2) August 31, 2021
In his tweet, Saleh mentioned, “Afghanistan wasn’t packed and put in the bag of the last US soldier. The country is here. The rivers are flowing and the mountains are majestic. Talibs are an unpopular proxy force and hated. That is why the whole country wants to escape from them. A superpower decided to be mini power that is OK.”
“If the US decides to leave tomorrow, we have no influence on that. All we can do is to tell them our story, remind them of our common objective, our common goal and our common enemy. But if they decide to go, it will be their decision. We tell them, the enemy is not defeated, their slated objectives and aims have not been met, their promises have not been fulfilled. But if they still wish to leave, it is their decision,” Saleh says within the video clip shared by Tarek Fatah.
Back in 2007, when Saleh was the intelligence chief of Afghanistan, he had shared the whereabouts of the United States’s bete noire, Osama Bin Laden, the Al Qaeda chief, who was accountable for America’s struggle in Afghanistan. Saleh mentioned he had acquired intelligence inputs of Bin Laden staying at a secure home in Mansehra.
However, the United States didn’t take his enter significantly. Saleh additionally approached Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf to inform him about Osama Bin Laden’s whereabouts in Pakistan. Musharraf received so offended with Saleh that he apparently lunged at him and solely after intervention from the then Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai he backed off.
Four years after Saleh knowledgeable the US intel companies of Osama’s presence in Mansehra, in May 2011, the US particular forces hunted down Osama Bin Laden at a secure home in Pakistan’s Abbottabad. As it turned out, Mansehra was simply 12 miles from the place Osama Bin Laden was situated by the US intelligence companies.
The Panjshir Valley is resisting. Amrullah Saleh and Ahmed Massoud are persevering with the battle in opposition to Afghanistan, reportedly joined by different warlords and lots of former members of the Afghan navy.