Supporters of Mr. Dostum who gathered at the airport in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif to greet him were frustrated when he was turned away. “There were about 500 to 1,000 people waiting for him, and we waited for three hours,” said Raees Abdul Khaliq, a member of the Balkh provincial council who was at the airport on Monday night. “The central government, against all the laws of Afghanistan and the world, against the fact that the president cannot rule an ordinary citizen — let alone the vice president — a criminal until proven by a court, told the plane not to land.”

The episode was confirmed privately by people close to Mr. Dostum as well as officials close to Atta Muhammad Noor, the powerful governor of Balkh Province. Mr. Noor, a onetime rival of Mr. Dostum, recently joined his new alliance of politicians united in anger at Mr. Ghani’s coalition government. A Western official said Mr. Noor called the commander of NATO coalition forces in the north, seeking permission for Mr. Dostum’s aircraft to land, but was told that the matter was up to the central government, not the coalition forces.

However, the offices of both Mr. Dostum and Mr. Noor issued statements denying the incident, which were interpreted by many as face-saving rather than factual. Mr. Noor’s office said the plane’s passengers were Turkish “special guests” of the governor and did not include the vice president.

A senior government official said that the authorities in Kabul, the capital, became suspicious of the small plane, which was said to be carrying seven businessmen. The authorities requested that the plane land in Kabul for processing before going to Mazar-i-Sharif, but the pilot’s reluctance to comply confirmed their suspicion that Mr. Dostum was aboard, the official said.

Mr. Dostum has been in conflict with the government for months, most recently over a criminal investigation into accusations that he and his bodyguards kidnapped and sexually assaulted a political rival. The vice president is becoming one of the biggest headaches of Mr. Ghani’s presidency.