Afghan Vice President Seen Abducting Rival

KABUL, Afghanistan — As heavy snow fell on the muddy arena in northern Afghanistan where a traditional game of buzkashi — two teams of horsemen fighting for a dead goat — was underway on Friday, a scuffle broke out near the stands.

It was not just another group of hotheaded fans going at it. The man who had thrown the punch is the vice president of Afghanistan, Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum. And he did not stop there: To drive the humiliation home, he put his foot on the chest of his downed victim, a political rival named Ahmad Ishchi, who was then beaten by the general’s bodyguards, thrown into the back of an armored vehicle and taken away, said several of Mr. Ishchi’s relatives, many of them speaking on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation.

“Dostum came there, and he walked around the stadium, — then he called Ahmad Ishchi over to him,” said Gulab Khan, a relative of Mr. Ishchi who was among about 5,000 spectators at the game. “After talking with him for a couple of minutes, he punched him, and his bodyguards started beating him with AK-47s. They beat Ahmad very badly and in a barbaric way.”

The account of General Dostum’s actions — while not unexpected for a former warlord with a history of accusations of human rights violations and abuse, including physical acts of retaliation against allies and rivals — underscores fears about someone a heartbeat from the presidency.

With President Ashraf Ghani traveling on an official visit to Central Asia, General Dostum is technically the acting president. For more than two days, he has held a political rival hostage in one of his properties, with members of Mr. Ishchi’s family increasingly concerned about his health.

On Sunday, hundreds of protesters gathered outside the vice president’s pink palace in the northern city of Shibarghan, pleading with him to free Mr. Ishchi. The protesters remained all day, but General Dostum did not meet with them. His guards simply told the protesters that the general was busy or resting.

Spokesmen and advisers to General Dostum did not respond to requests for comment, despite promises from several of them. Aides who had accompanied the general to the game, and who were shown at his side in official pictures, flatly denied they had been there.

Lutfullah Azizi, the governor of Jowzjan Province, which includes Shibarghan, said on Sunday that he was away from his office on a visit to Kabul, the capital, but was trying to calm the situation.

“I organized the tribal elders and sent them to talk with General Dostum to release Ahmad,” Mr. Azizi said. “They are currently meeting General Dostum, and we are emphasizing Ahmad’s release tonight, as he is sick.”

While the two men have a long history of not getting along, a senior Afghan official who also spoke on the condition of anonymity said Mr. Ishchi had shown some sign of disrespect at a very vulnerable time for the general.

General Dostum has increasingly felt marginalized and humiliated by Mr. Ghani in Kabul. He has spent more time away from his office — he is often seen in uniform on the battlefields of his northern stronghold — than behind his desk.

Mr. Ishchi has been involved in politics in the north for decades and helped General Dostum found the Junbish party, which he leads now. A former labor leader during the Communist regime, he rose to serve in senior provincial government positions. One of his sons was a district governor in Jowzjan, and another is a member of the provincial council there. A third son has become rich in recent years through businesses he has in Turkey.

The senior Afghan official said that although Mr. Ishchi had little power compared with General Dostum, the general considered the Ishchi family a threat to his own dynasty as he groomed his children to inherit his party and influence.

The confrontation happened soon after General Dostum returned to the country from an absence that followed another outburst aimed at Mr. Ghani, in which he threatened to cause trouble if he was not taken seriously. The general was angry at the lack of help from the central government when his convoy was ambushed by the Taliban during a military operation in Faryab Province, killing many of the men who had been at his side for years.

At Friday’s game, General Dostum arrived in a convoy of black armored vehicles. Before the goat was slaughtered to start the action, a video of the event showed, local musicians sang a tribute to the recent martyrs as the general wept. His trembling lips pushing out deep breaths of pain, and with snow gathering on his shoulders, he wiped his tears with a white tissue.

Then he took it out on Mr. Ishchi.

Source nytimes.com

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