By Terry Friel

KABUL, April 21 (Reuters) - Athletes from Afghanistan's disabled Olympics team formed a cordon to block a protest march on Saturday against a popular television station raided by police over a news item on the attorney-general this week.

In wheelchairs and on crutches, more than half a dozen people formed a line in front of riot police to block a rally of several hundred reaching Tolo television in Kabul's upmarket diplomatic neighbourhood of Wazir Akbar Khan.

"I am not supporting anyone, I am supporting Afghans," paralympic team chief Haji Abdul Rahman said, dressed in a beige suit and seated in his wheelchair on the potholed road. "It's good TV. All the time they defend the rights of the people."

Several hundred men marched on Tolo in a peaceful and well-organised demonstration. Riot police said they were deployed on the streets more than three hours before the protesters arrived.

Attorney-General Abdul Jabar Sabet ordered a raid on Tolo on Tuesday night that turned violent over a news broadcast he considered unfair that included footage from a news conference he gave, Tolo said.

CONTROVERSIAL PROGRAMMES

Sabet has not commented on the incident and the Interior Ministry, which oversees his office, has not been available for comment and has not answered Reuters' e-mail questions on the raid.

Protesters, including many government employees and students from government universities, said that they had not been paid to turn up, but none had seen the relevant news clip.

"Long live Afghanistan! Death to Tolo TV!" they chanted.

Critics say Afghanistan's newly free and vibrant media, including Tolo, is not always accurate. Run by Afghans from Australia, Tolo is known for controversial programming and sometimes racy content.

Matiullah Wahidai, a government human resources consultant, said Tolo went against Afghan values. "We don't want Tolo TV in Kabul," he said as the rally marched nearby the U.S. embassy. "It is against Afghanistan's ethnic culture."

Some protesters carried banners saying "We want rule of law" and "Tolo + transmission = destruction of our society".

But many, including leading politicians, say Sabet and his police regularly break the law themselves.

Dozens of journalists and lawmakers protested on Wednesday outside parliament against the raid, accusing President Hamid Karzai's government of smothering freedom of speech.

The raids underline widespread criticism that the police, supposed to be a key weapon in the battle for security in the face of a mounting Taliban insurgency, are corrupt, badly trained and hold themselves above the laws they are charged to enforce.

At least 14 foreigners were arrested in guesthouse and restaurant raids in February and not charged within the constitutional 24 hours, witnesses say. They remain in jail.

No warrant or other official documentation was produced in Tuesday night's raid, Tolo said.

Tolo said in a statement it had filed formal complaints against Sabet, accusing him of at least 11 breaches of the law.

"The potential crimes are of the utmost seriousness and directly affect (the) issue of rule of law and sustainability of democracy in Afghanistan, especially given that they may be perpetrated by a person holding the highest operational legal position in Afghanistan," Tolo said in a statement on Saturday.

Tolo is demanding Sabet and all his commanders involved in the raid -- in which Tolo journalists and witnesses say people were beaten -- be suspended.

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