Who was Rahmanullah Lakanwal, the alleged shooter in the incident that prompted the asylum freeze?

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Rahmanullah Lakanwal was a 29-year-old Afghan national who had worked with the Central Intelligence Agency to fight the Taliban during the war in Afghanistan. He was admitted to the United States in 2021 as part of the effort to resettle Afghan allies following the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. His background was particularly complex because he had been vetted and admitted specifically due to his service to American intelligence operations. The fact that Lakanwal had passed security screenings and had a history of working alongside U.S. forces made his alleged attack on National Guard members especially jarring and raised difficult questions about the limits of vetting processes. Critics of the asylum freeze noted that Lakanwal was not an asylum seeker but rather someone admitted through a different pathway, making the blanket asylum pause a questionable response to this specific incident.

Who was Rahmanullah Lakanwal, the alleged shooter in the incident that prompted the asylum freeze?

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