KABUL — Afghan Vice President Abdul Rashid Dostum returned to Kabul to a hero's welcome on Sunday, more than a year after fleeing the country during a probe into the rape and torture of a political rival.

Scores of senior government officials, political leaders and supporters gathered at the airport to greet the powerful ethnic Uzbek leader and former warlord.

Wearing a Western-style suit and sunglasses, Dostum, who is linked to a catalogue of human rights abuses in Afghanistan, was mobbed like a celebrity as he left the chartered plane from Turkey where he has lived since May 2017.

His return, which has been the subject of much speculation, comes amid violent protests in several provinces across northern Afghanistan, his traditional power base.

Thousands of Dostum's supporters have taken to the streets in recent weeks, shuttering election and government offices and blocking sections of highways, demanding the release of a pro-government militia leader and calling for Dostum's return.

Expectations of the return did little to quell the unrest, with protesters vowing Sunday to continue demonstrating until the burly leader of the Uzbek ethnic minority tells them otherwise.

"We don't trust the government. We will continue our protests unless General Dostum tells us to stop," Ehsanullah Qowanch, a protest leader in Faryab province, told AFP.

Qowanch also repeated calls for the release of Nezamuddin Qaisari — a district police chief and Dostum's provincial representative in Faryab — whose arrest earlier this month ignited the protests.

Another protester, Massoud Khan, said: "We have been on the streets for 20 days now. We are not going to stop our protests unless our demands are met."

'Known killer'

Observers say President Ashraf Ghani, an ethnic Pashtun, gave the green light for Dostum to come home to stabilize the north and secure Uzbek support before next year's presidential election, which he is widely expected to contest.

Dostum left Afghanistan in May 2017 after he was accused of organizing the rape and torture of a political rival.

He had denied the allegations and said his departure was for medical check-ups and family reasons.

Ghani described Dostum as a "known killer" in 2009. Yet he chose him as his running mate in the 2014 presidential election, underlining the sometimes uncomfortable ethnic realities of Afghan politics. — AFP