Some close aides to the First Vice President Abdul Rashid Dostum have claimed that the Army’s Special Forces Unit assaulted Nizamuddin Qaisari’s bodyguards at the time of his arrest.

Qaisari is the police chief of Qaisar district and a close aide to Dostum. He was arrested last Monday in Faryab.

Head of Dostum’s office, Enayatullah Babur Farahmand, said the army soldiers bound the hands of Qaisari’s security guards, beat them and shot some during the arrest.

“People in the north demand the trial of the president himself, who issued the order of such a heinous act and those who practiced this order and are practicing it until today by keeping him (Qaisari) in custody illegally,” he said.

However no details have been released regarding the alleged shooting.

The remarks were expressed following the emergence of photos on social media which are said to be of Qaisari’s security guards.

The photos were first posted by Bashir Ahmad Tahyanj, a spokesman for Junbish-e-Milli Party – the National Islamic Movement of Afghanistan on Monday evening.

“These are the photos of soldiers and associates of Nizamuddin Qaisari who have been killed, wounded and arrested by commando forces,” he wrote on his Facebook page in Persian.

The photos show that some individuals’ hands have been tied behind their backs and some have sustained injuries - also some show soldiers standing with a foot pushed into a guard’s throat.

“We ask government to respond to this. Our people are very sensitive and serious towards this issue,” Tahyanj said.

The Presidential Palace meanwhile said the issue needs further investigation.

“This issue needs further investigation in order to make it clear for the public, but most important is that it will not be just if the issue is prejudged. It should be made clear who are in the photos and to which incident it belongs,” said Murtazawi.

The eighth day after Qaisari’s arrest was also followed by demonstrations in Maimana City, the capital city of Faryab province.

“We want our rights. We have voted. You have betrayed our rights Ashraf Ghani!” one Faryab resident said during a protest on Tuesday.

“Nizamuddin Qaisari should be released and General Dostum should be brought back home otherwise our protest will continue,” a woman member of the protest said.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, at least 1,000 displaced families were getting relief assistance - not far from the protestors.

Government statistics show that at least 16,000 displaced families are living in Faryab.

“People will face more poverty and will suffer more diseases if they are not assisted because there are no factories here (in Faryab) and there is war,” the newly appointed Faryab governor Naqibullah Fayiq said.

This comes after the Second Vice President Sarwar Danish held talks with Dostum in Turkey to deescalate the tension and protests in at least seven northern and northeastern provinces.

Qaisari Was Arrested Last Week On Monday

Nizamuddin Qaisari was arrested by Afghan Commandos last week in Faryab after being accused of insulting government.

Immediately after his arrest, Qaisari was flown to Kabul where he is being detained.

Qaisari’s arrest provoked widespread anger in Faryab as hundreds of angry protesters took to the streets of Maimana to demand his release.

Their numbers were in the thousands last week by Wednesday – with some supporters estimating the crowd to have totaled around 6,000.

At one stage during the protest march, security forces opened fire, which infuriated the crowd. They stormed the governor’s office and set the building on fire.

The tension in Faryab started brewing on Monday after Qaisari was called to a meeting at the military command in the province and then arrested. Some of his supporters said the meeting had been a trap.