Afghanistan’s First Vice President Amrullah Saleh declares himself as caretaker President

"As per the Constitution of Afghanistan in absence, escape, resignation or death of the President, the FVP becomes the caretaker President.  I am currently inside my country and am the legitimate care taker President.  I am reaching out to all leaders to secure their support and consensus," Saleh tweeted.  

Saleh who reportedly went underground on Sunday said he would never be under "one ceiling" with the Islamist fundamentalists.

According to some media outlets, Saleh relocated into the Panjshir Valley, where he proclaimed himself the caretaker President of Afghanistan and announced the formation of an anti-Taliban front along with Ahmad Massoud and Defense Minister Bismillah Khan Mohammadi.

He said he will never betray the "soul" and "legacy of my hero Ahmad Shah Masoud", the late Afghan politician and military commander who fought against the Soviet occupation between 1979 and 1989.

Earlier yesterday, Saleh reportedly called on anti-Taliban groups to join the "resistance", saying they have not lost spirit unlike the United States and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

Recall, Ashraf Ghani on Sunday left the country along with National Security Adviser Hamdullah Mohib and head of the administrative office of President Fazel Mahmood Fazli.

Hindustan Times says that according to Afghan media, Afghan parliament speaker Mir Rahman Rahmani, Younus Qanuni, Muhammad Muhaqeq, Karim Khalili, Ahmad Wali Masoud, and Ahmad Zia Masoud have fled to Islamabad.  Some of Afghanistan's lawmakers reportedly have also fled to Islamabad.

Amrullah Saleh was born on October 15, 1972 in Panjshir.  He belongs to the Tajik ethnic group.  Saleh formerly served as the fifth first vice president of Afghanistan in 2020 and served as the Minister of Interior Affairs of Afghanistan in 2018 and 2019 and as head of the National Directorate of Security (NDS) from 2004, until his resignation in 2010.

Prior to heading the Afghan intelligence, he was a member of Ahmad Shah Massoud's Northern Alliance.  The BBC reported in 2008 that in 1997, Saleh was appointed by Massoud to serve as Northern Alliance's liaison office inside the Afghan Embassy in Dushanbe, handling contacts to international non-governmental (humanitarian) organizations and intelligence agencies.  After resigning from the NDS in 2010, Saleh created a pro-democracy and anti-Taliban movement called Basej-e Milli (National Mobilization) and Green Trend.

In March 2017, he was appointed as State Minister for Security Reforms by President Ashraf Ghani.  In December 2018, he was appointed as the Interior Minister by Ghani. He resigned as the Interior Minister on January 19, 2019 to join Ashraf Ghani's election team and was appointed as first Vice President of Afghanistan.