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AFGHANISTAN-UNREST LEAD
At least 14 killed in bomb attack on Afghan election rally
KUNDUZ, Afghanistan, Oct 13, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – A motorcycle carrying
explosives blew up among supporters of an Afghan election candidate on
Saturday, killing at least 14 people, officials said, in the latest attack on
a political rally.
Violence related to the parliamentary vote has killed or wounded hundreds
of people in recent months and more militant attacks are expected ahead of
Afghanistan’s October 20 poll.
More than 30 people were wounded in the explosion in the northeastern
province of Takhar where candidate Nazifa Yousefibek had been campaigning,
provincial governor spokesman Mohammad Jawad Hejri told AFP.
Interior ministry deputy spokesman Nasrat Rahimi said most of the 14 killed
were civilians.
“The explosives were placed in a motorcycle and detonated behind a tent
where Nazifa Yousefibek was campaigning,” Rahimi said.
Yousefibek was not hurt in the blast. No group has claimed responsibility.
Ambulances have been sent to the remote district of Rustaq where the attack
happened, but officials also are seeking to airlift the wounded to hospitals,
Hejri said.
Khan Jan, who told AFP he saw the explosion, said there had been a powerful
blast and “a lot of people” had been killed.
More than 2,500 candidates are contesting the long-delayed legislative
elections.
At least nine candidates have died so far, most of them in targeted
killings, according to the Independent Election Commission.
A candidate was among eight people killed in a suicide attack in the
southern province of Helmand — a Taliban stronghold — on October 9. No
group has claimed responsibility.
That incident came a day after the Taliban warned candidates to pull out of
the “bogus” election, describing it as a “malicious American conspiracy”.
The group vowed to attack the ballot and those involved in it.
An attack on a rally in the eastern province of Nangarhar on October 2
killed 13 people and wounded more than 40. The Islamic State group claimed
the attack, which the candidate survived.
Violence had been expected to escalate ahead of the poll.
Preparations for the ballot, which is a test run for next year’s
presidential vote, have been in turmoil for months and there has been debate
about whether the vote should go ahead.
Bureaucratic inefficiency, allegations of industrial-scale fraud and an
eleventh-hour pledge for biometric verification of voters threaten to derail
the process, which is three years late.
Some 54,000 members of Afghanistan’s beleaguered security forces will be
responsible for protecting more than 5,000 polling centres on election day.
But there are concerns over how they will manage as the Taliban and the
Islamic State group step up attacks across the country.
BSS/AFP/FI/ 2040 hrs