On 1st July 2006, hundreds of people from the Paghman district of Kabul demonstrated against Rasul Sayyaf, a fundamentalist leader of the Itehad-e-Islami party and a current member of the Afghan parliament. The protesters accused Sayyaf and his armed militia of extorting their lands and imposing crimes against them.

2 protesters were killed by police

And on the night of 29th July 2006, armed forces loyal to Sayyaf killed an innocent villager of Paghman by the name of Malik over the issue of land. The next day, angry supporters of Malik and commander Ghafar joined hands with hundreds of people from Paghman and held a demonstration to protest the killing. Haji Abdul Qayum, the district head of Paghman and the chief of police, both loyal to Sayyaf's party, tried to stop the demonstration. Hundreds of people demanded the trial of Sayyaf and moved ahead towards the center of Kabul City to make the government aware of their situation.

In support of Sayyaf, the police tried to prevent the growing crowd and fired at them. As a result, two people were killed and another two were injured. In a statement published by the Interior Ministry, Sayyaf has been defended and the protestors have been condemned as agitators.

RAWA, July 30, 2006

People condemned Sayyaf and other commanders like Akey, Dr. Abdullah, Sher Alam, (the present governor of the Ghazni province), his nephew Mumtaz and others who dominate the area and rule over people by gun and power. They also objected that government takes no action against these renegades.

The demonstrators told the media that the land in the area of Chunghar, which is owned by 40,000 people of Shahguzar, (a village in Paghman) has been occupied by Sayyaf and his gunmen by force, though the people of the village legally own the land by order of the court. They claimed that Sayyaf’s party, in collaboration with the interior minister, divided the land in Dasht-e-Chamtla amongst themselves and now they are trying to dispossess them of their land in the same manner.

One of the protesters added, "Sayyaf threatened us that even if we own the land legally, he would take it from us by force. When we made a complaint to the police headquarters, we were told that they can’t do anything against Sayyaf. Security chief of Kabul, Amanulla Guzar, himself is collaborating with Sayyaf and his party. When we possessed the land legally, Sayyaf's gunmen came at night disguised in police uniforms, attacked us and threatened us to leave off the land; they even injured one of us because he opposed them."

One of the old men of the village told the reporters in anger: "They hit me with the gunstock and injured me; we called ISAF and later when their plane arrived and dropped a few cartridges, it frightened them and they left us. Many countries exist around Afghanistan, but does this kind of justice prevail there? Mumtaz, commander Sher Alam, Sayaf, Dr. Abdullah and others have an eye on our land and resources. We, the people of Shahguzar have taken an oath that even if we are killed seven times, we would still defend our rights and will never allow Sayyaf to occupy our land."

Another dweller of the village exclaimed, “Mr Karzai pretends that he is strengthening peace, but the robbers roam in the capital carrying guns and rockets. What kind of peace is this?"

Regarding this protest, Haji Abdul Qayum, the district head of Paghman who is member of Sayyaf's party, supported him and condemned the protestors.

It’s worth mentioning that one of the former commanders of Itehad-e-Islami, named commander Ghafar, also broke ties with Sayyaf and he claims that Sayyaf intends to kill him because he fears he will occupy the land himself.

Usurpation of land and possessions by mafia groups is one of the main problems that citizens in different parts of Afghanistan face. The perpetrators of these crimes are those with guns, and are authorized in main government posts.

KABUL, July 2 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Scores of people in the Paghman district of this central capital Sunday staged a protest demonstration against the alleged land grabbing by commanders loyal to former warlord Abdul Rab Rasul Sayyaf.

Saying they were residents of the Chonghar village, the protestors gathered in front of the district headquarters and chanted slogans against Sayaf and his commanders alleging they had forcefully seized their farms. However, Sayyaf rejected the allegations as baseless.

RAWA Photo: The district chief and police chief are members of Sayyaf malitia group.

The protesters claimed five thousand acres of land, belonging to residents of the Shashguzar village of Paghman, had been occupied by the commanders.

Ghulam Muhammad Moi, representative of the protesters, told Pajhwok Afghan News: "Commander Mumtaz, commander Dr Abdullah and governor of the Ghazni province Haji Sher Alam had forcefully occupied our lands for the past one and half year." Now they had claimed its ownership, said Moi.

Hisamudin, a complainant, said they were unable to cultivate crops on the land due to the lingering dispute. Chonghar village is situated on Kabul - Kandahar Highway. The protestors said a number of gunmen had arrested commander Abdul Ghafar, who tried to raise his voice on behalf of the aggrieved party.

Contacted for comments, Abdul Rab Rasul Sayaf, who is also member of the Wolesi Jirga, termed the allegations leveled against him as baseless. Speaking to this news agency, Sayaf said those people had staged such demonstrations in past as well.

District chief of Paghman Haji Abdul Qadir did not support the claims made by the demonstrators. He said some documents regarding ownership of the land in Chonghar had been handed over to Sayyaf's nephew Mumtaz by commander Abdul Ghafar but the two later disagreed over the deal.