KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghan soldiers and policemen surrounded the house of Vice President Abdul Rashid Dostum on Tuesday in an apparent effort to arrest nine of his aides accused of kidnapping and raping a political opponent on his orders.
The attempt to bring about the arrests came after the attorney general complained to police authorities that they had ignored previous orders to carry out the arrests. The police had said they feared an armed confrontation and would have to evacuate the residential neighborhood “to avoid civilian casualties,” according to copies of official documents obtained by The New York Times.
Stung by the attorney general’s criticism, police officials promised on Monday to take action. On Tuesday, more than 100 police and soldiers surrounded the downtown Kabul compound of Mr. Dostum, an ethnic Uzbek who is the more senior of the country’s two vice presidents. Observers said it appeared to be a siege, although there was no gunfire and the mood was calm.
Mr. Dostum is believed to have hundreds of armed irregulars under his command, and on Tuesday, his home in the Sherpur quarter was guarded with trucks mounted with artillery and heavy machine guns, but it was unclear how many militiamen were inside the cordon.
KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghan soldiers and policemen surrounded the house of Vice President Abdul Rashid Dostum on Tuesday in an apparent effort to arrest nine of his aides accused of kidnapping and raping a political opponent on his orders.
The attempt to bring about the arrests came after the attorney general complained to police authorities that they had ignored previous orders to carry out the arrests. The police had said they feared an armed confrontation and would have to evacuate the residential neighborhood “to avoid civilian casualties,” according to copies of official documents obtained by The New York Times.
Stung by the attorney general’s criticism, police officials promised on Monday to take action. On Tuesday, more than 100 police and soldiers surrounded the downtown Kabul compound of Mr. Dostum, an ethnic Uzbek who is the more senior of the country’s two vice presidents. Observers said it appeared to be a siege, although there was no gunfire and the mood was calm.
Mr. Dostum is believed to have hundreds of armed irregulars under his command, and on Tuesday, his home in the Sherpur quarter was guarded with trucks mounted with artillery and heavy machine guns, but it was unclear how many militiamen were inside the cordon.
On Monday, Mr. Dostum defiantly went under heavy guard to his office in the presidential compound, after having claimed the role of acting president in the absence of President Ashraf Ghani, who was at an international security conference in Munich. Mr. Ghani returned in time to make the announced assumption of powers moot.
The prospect of Mr. Dostum’s taking even temporary charge of the Afghan government is an alarming one to Western diplomats and the Afghan political establishment. Although he ran on the same ticket as Mr. Ghani, he has since become estranged from the president, complaining of being sidelined and ignored.
Mr. Dostum’s record as a warlord accused of mass murders during Afghanistan’s civil war has been compounded by his threats to turn against the government here. Mr. Ghani himself, before the election, described his first vice president as a “known killer.” Mr. Ghani’s aides have denied that Mr. Dostum is entitled to become acting president if Mr. Ghani is abroad.
Just as worrisome has been Mr. Dostum’s often bizarre behavior, including allegations of public drunkenness, tearful outbursts during speeches and thinly veiled threats to kill political opponents. After carrying out a supposed military operation against the Taliban in his northern home province of Jowzjan two years ago, Mr. Dostum returned in a victory procession to Kabul flanked by two uniformed and armed dwarves he had enlisted along the way.
The standoff over the arrests of the general’s aides has emerged as an important test of Afghanistan’s commitment to the rule of law, and of Mr. Ghani’s authority over a shaky coalition government. Western diplomats have closely followed the case, and in December the European Union called for an investigation into what it described as “reports of gross human rights violations” committed against Ahmad Ishchi, 63, a former provincial governor who has long been a critic of Mr. Dostum.
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In 2008, there was a similar standoff around Mr. Dostum’s house after earlier complaints of abuse against him. That standoff lasted for a year, keeping him under effective house arrest until he agreed to go into exile in Turkey. Despite the charges against him, Mr. Dostum remained highly popular among the Uzbek minority and in 2009, President Hamid Karzai brought him back from exile to help in his election campaign. Mr. Ghani similarly overlooked his earlier distaste and embraced him during the 2014 campaign.
The current case stems from an episode last November in northern Afghanistan at a buzkashi match, the traditional Uzbek sport that resembles polo with a goat as the puck. According to multiple witnesses, Mr. Dostum, 62, ordered his bodyguards to kidnap Mr. Ishchi, another Uzbek leader.
In an interview, Mr. Ishchi said he was held for five days in the general’s Jowzjan compound and was anally penetrated with rifle barrels by Mr. Dostum’s bodyguards on his orders. He also accused Mr. Dostum of personally trying to rape him, but he said the general was physically incapable of doing so. Instead, the general ordered his guards to take photographs showing him simulating sex acts against Mr. Ishchi, and later ordered his bodyguards to torture and sexually abuse him, according to Mr. Ishchi’s account.
Mr. Dostum’s spokesmen deny those charges, saying Mr. Ishchi was not kidnapped but was arrested as part of a criminal investigation. They denied the validity of forensic evidence showing physical injury to Mr. Ishchi that corroborated his charges.
A spokesman also maintained that the authorities had no right to arrest his aides or question the general himself because he believes he is constitutionally protected from prosecution.
The arrest warrant in the case was issued in January but not made public. A copy that was obtained by The Times names Gen. Abdul Sattar, a top aide to the vice president and the chief of his security detail, as well as eight other people believed to be bodyguards, for the “insult, torture, rape and illegal detention” of Mr. Ishchi.
Mr. Dostum remains under investigation in the case, officials said.
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