VP accused of sexual assault

KABUL: Allegations that Afghanistan’s first vice-president and his guards sexually assaulted a political rival while holding him captive in his private compound prompted calls on Tuesday from the country’s Western allies for a government investigation.

Abdul Rashid Dostum, a former warlord who has a catalogue of war crimes attached to his name, is accused of ordering his guards to seize Ahmad Ishchi last month in northern Jowzjan province during a game of buzkashi, or polo with a carcass.

Mr Dostum allegedly kept Mr Ishchi hostage in his private enclave for five days, where he was said to be tortured and sodomised.

“He told me ‘I will throw you under the horses and do buzkashi on you’,” Mr Ishchi, a former Jowzjan governor, told local Tolo television on Tuesday.

“He [Dostum] said first I want to have sex with him.

“His men rolled up my clothes. Then Dostum told 10 of his men to sodomise me until my anus ruptures and bleeds.”

Mr Dostum’s office dismissed the comments as a conspiracy to defame him.

But the United States joined a slew of Western governments to call for a thorough probe.

“The unlawful detention and reported mistreatment of Mr Ishchi by the First Vice President raises serious concerns,” the US embassy in Kabul said in a statement.

“We would welcome the Afghan government’s move to swiftly investigate these allegations.”