Warlord Dostum's house besieged

Afghan police briefly surrounded the luxury Kabul villa of former warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum yesterday after he entered the house of a one-time ally with some 50 gunmen and beat him up in a drunken rage, officials said.

The standoff highlights the problem of powerful warlords who helped tear Afghanistan apart in the 1992-96 civil war and are still waiting in the wings should President Hamid Karzai fail in the fight against the Taliban, or lose his grip on government.

Dostum, a warlord with a reputation for brutality and treachery, forced his way into the house of former aide Akbar Bay with some 50 armed men and two members of parliament.

"Last night, at around 12:30, Mr Dostum, being drunk and abnormal, stormed Akbar Bay's residence with other armed men," Interior Ministry spokesman Zaher Azimy told a news conference.

One of Bay's bodyguards was shot and Dostum and his men beat up Bay and his son and took them to the warlord's house, Kabul police chief Salem Hasaas. The pair were later freed during the night and taken to hospital.

But by morning, dozens of police armed with assault rifles and machine guns had surrounded Dostum's house, one of many glass and gaudy concrete villas of a type favored by warlords and drugs barons that have sprung up in the Afghan capital.

One shot was fired, but it was unclear where it came from.

Shortly afterwards, police began to withdraw.

"We have received orders to hand the case over to the judiciary for investigation," said the head of the Kabul police criminal investigation, Ali Shah Paktiawal.

A spokesman for Dostum said there was no truth in the accusations and warned of unrest if police tried to arrest him.

Agencies

(China Daily 02/04/2008 page6)