Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
July 22, 2018
Afghan Vice President Abdul Rashid Dostum narrowly escaped a deadly suicide bombing at Kabul airport as he returned home from more than a year in exile in Turkey over allegations of torturing and abusing a political rival.
Afghan officials said Dostum, a powerful former warlord, had left the airport in a motorcade only minutes before the blast struck at the entrance of the airport on July 22, killing at least 11 people.
Dostum was unharmed, said his spokesman, Bashir Ahmad Tayanj.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but both the Taliban and the Islamic State (IS) extremist group are active in the Afghan capital.
Kabul police spokesman Hashmat Stanekzai said at least 11 people had been killed and 14 wounded, including both civilians and members of the security forces. He did not give a breakdown.
“The blast happened right after Dostum’s convoy left the airport,” said Stanekzai.
Mohib Zeer, an official from the public health ministry, also confirmed that 11 people were killed in the attack.
Interior Ministry spokesman Najib Danish said the explosion was “caused by a suicide attacker on foot.”
Hundreds of Dostum’s supporters had gathered at the entrance of Kabul airport to welcome home the ethnic Uzbek leader from exile.
Dostum returned to Kabul after more than a year in self-imposed exile in Turkey amid claims that he had ordered his men to abduct, beat, and rape a political rival in 2017.
Dostum had been undergoing medical treatment in Turkey, was now well, and would resume work, presidential spokesman Haroon Chakhansuri said.
Dostum left the country in 2017, after the attorney general’s office opened an investigation into allegations that his followers had tortured and sexually abused Ahmad Ischi, a former political ally from Dostum’s Junbesh party.
Dostum had denied the allegations and said his departure was for medical checkups and family reasons.
It was not clear whether Dostum will face charges.
A deputy government spokesman told RFE/RL’s Radio Free Afghanistan on July 21 that “legal matters will be pursued according to the law.”
Dostum is a controversial figure who has been accused of serious human rights violations, including the deaths of hundreds of Taliban prisoners in 2001 in the custody of his militia forces.
With reporting by Radio Free Afghanistan, Reuters, AP, AFP, and ToloNews
Copyright (c) 2018. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.
Related
with an advise from a friend, I visited a hospital in Peshawar where the European ((mostly French)), Pakistani and Afghani doctors and nurses were treating two
Hall full of many injured country folks who had been airlifted and hospitalized in there.
Those ordinary folks were getting
medical treatments
from severe injuries that they had sustained from defending their home towns from the
PAGHMAN and it’s nearby neighboring districts.
The injuries had happened during advancing and ambushing phases of Doastum’s militias in their districts.
IT WAS SO IRONIC TO
SEE
EUROPEAN
HEALTH SPECHALIST SO EXTREMELY BUSY HELPING THE INJURED
FROM AFGHANISTAN; BUT YET AT THE SAME RATE, THEIR SAVAGE GOVERNMENTS WERE PAYING OFF DOASTUM MEN IN AN EVIL ORDER TO PREVENT THE FALL
OF
KABUL CITY
TO
THE PEOPLE OF THE SURROUNDING AREAS
OF
KABIL CITY.
I WOULD LIKE TO ADD THAT
IT HAD
NOTHING TO DO
WITH THE
HONORABLE
UZBACK PEOPLE
OF
AFGHANISTAN L
THE MILITARY TACTICS WERE ALL GETTING CONCEIVED BY
FOREIGNERS- BUT THEY WERE SACRIFICING ALL REGULAR
NAIVE YOUTHS
FROM ALL
ETHNICS GROUPS
OF
AFGHANISTAN; REGARDLESS
TO THEIR
ETHNIC AFFILIATIONS.
ANOTHER FACT:
********************
MANY
INNOCENT ETHNIC
UZBACK YOUTHS,
((FROM THE NORTHERN PROVINCES)), WERE ALSO GETTING
SENSELESSLY
USED AND KILLED
DURING THOSE FOREIGN-LEASED MILITARY OPERATIONS
ON CIVILIANS.