As the Donald Trump administration cracked down on ‘hellhole’ Afghanistan after Afghan-origin Rahmanullah Lakanwal was identified as the suspected shooter outside White House, former Afghanistan vice president Amrullah Saleh said all Afghan-origin people should not pay the price of what Lakanwal did.Saleh made three requests to the Donald Trump administration, and one of them was to stop millions of dollars of funds to the Taliban government.
Calling Lakanwal the worst of all Afghans, Amrullah Saleh blamed president Joe Biden’s decision to let thousands of Afghans enter the US and said 40 million Afghans should not be blamed for what Lakanwal did. “First, please do not be angry with all the people of Afghanistan. There are 40 million of us. That man was the very worst – & he was there due to Biden’s disastrous decision,” the former VP wrote. “Second, please stop sending tens of millions of dollars to the Taliban every week.””Third, as a real preventative and punitive measure, revoke the citizenship of Zalmay Khalilzad, so that the next generation of Afghan Americans knows the price of being a traitor. He brought shame to you and disaster to Afghanistan,” Saleh wrote. Zalmay was the former US ambassador to Afghanistan and Iraq.
Immigration requests for Afghans suspended, all Afghan refugees to be re-examined
President Donald Trump called the shooting in Washington an ‘act of terror’ and immediately suspended processing all immigration requests from Afghans. Then Trump announced that all Afghan refugees in the US should be re-examined.Lakanwal entered the United States in 2021 through Operation Allies Welcome, according to the Department of Homeland Security. The initiative provided entry to roughly 76,000 Afghans after the US called back its troops and the Taliban gained power.Lakanwal was once part of a CIS-backed paramilitary group, trained to conduct night raids and clandestine missions across Afghanistan during the US war. The specific unit to which Lakanwal was assigned was responsible for operations around the southern province of Kandahar and beyond.
