Ethnic rivalry lives on in Kabul, as supporters of king who died in 1929 come under attack

A procession of several thousand marchers attempting to rebury the remains of a controversial Afghan king in Kabul came under attack from gunmen loyal to Vice-President Abdurrashid Dostom, an ethnic Uzbek militia leader.

Two marchers were wounded on Thursday in the ethnic clashes before police and other officials intervened, Afghan news outlets reported.

The clash, which erupted around a hilly graveyard in a residential area of the capital, underscored the seething ethnic tensions that continue to roil the country after 15 years of democratic rule, and the potential for violence that can involve rogue officials of a weak civilian government that is already battling a persistent Taliban insurgency.

On one side of the confrontation were ethnic Tajik supporters of King Habibullah Kalakani, a former bandit, conservative Muslim and shrewd populist leader who overthrew a moderate Afghan monarch in 1929 and crushed many of his reforms before being captured and hanged after nine months on the throne.

Kalakani has lain in an unmarked grave in Kabul for 87 years, but after it was identified several years ago his supporters began to demand that the government allow his remains to be unearthed and transferred to a more honourable setting. When President Ashraf Ghani’s office failed to respond last month, they vowed to move the body without permission.

But other Afghan ethnic groups, who view Kalakani as a thief and a despot, opposed honouring him. Dostom, who often behaves more like an Uzbek militia leader than a national vice-president and has led his private army in fighting against the Taliban in Northern Afghanistan, reportedly said he would not allow the Tajiks to build a tomb for Kalakani at the cemetery because it was the burial site of a historic Uzbek leader.