On Saturday, Mr. Noor called Mr. Abdullah a “snake up our own sleeve,” accusing him of plotting to weaken his own party from within the administration. Mr. Noor said he had realized that 80 percent of the effort to remove him had come from Mr. Abdullah, and the rest from the president.

“Your teeth will not sink into us,” Mr. Noor said, referring to Mr. Abdullah. “We will break your teeth.”

The crowd chanted: “Death to Dr. Abdullah.”

Although Mr. Noor used his great wealth and power, accumulated over his years as governor, to back Mr. Abdullah in the presidential race, relations between the men soured soon after the coalition government was formed. Mr. Noor saw Mr. Abdullah as too soft in the face of Mr. Ghani’s efforts to marginalize their bloc.

Before Mr. Noor spoke out on Saturday, some of his supporters had been trying to negotiate with Mr. Ghani’s office to find a way out of the clash. Mr. Ghani has already named a new governor of Balkh Province, but Mr. Noor has said that choosing his own successor is one of his conditions for leaving the governorship. He also wants certain senior government positions to go to members of his party.

While Mr. Noor urged his supporters to protest civilly, he also made not-so-subtle references that strongmen in the north would lend a hand if force were needed. He said that Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, the Afghan vice president who also has a strong base in the north but is in exile in Turkey on charges of abducting and raping an opponent, had told him that all his men were under Mr. Noor’s command.