The Independent Election Commission in Afghanistan reportedly decided to postpone parliamentary elections in the Taliban birthplace of Kandahar province for a week in the wake of an attack that left two senior provincial officials dead.
Taliban jihadis have vowed to disrupt the October 20 elections, targeting voters and candidates while urging Afghans to boycott the race.
Ziaulhaq Amarkhil, an adviser to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, said Thursday’s attack was meant to disrupt elections and urged voters to defy Taliban threats, telling voters casting their ballot “would be a big slap on the face of the enemy,” the Associated Press (AP) reported Friday.
Soon after a provincial governor’s bodyguard carried out the attack in Kandahar on Thursday, the Taliban claimed responsibility. The assault killed three people and wounded 13 others, including two Americans.
In a statement, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid noted that the targets of the attack were American Gen. Scott Miller, the top commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan and Gen. Abdul Raziq, the police chief of Kandahar known as the Taliban’s “torturer-in-chief.”
While Gen. Miller survived the attack, Raziq did not.
U.S. Army Col. David Butler, who attended the meeting targeted by the bodyguard, “said Raziq was clearly the target, not the U.S. general,” AP reported, adding, “Butler said the assailant shot at Raziq and then appeared to spray the area with gunfire before he was killed.”
Referring to Afghanistan’s decision to delay the elections in Kandahar, AP noted, “The development came as mourners gathered for the funeral of police chief Gen. Abdul Raziq, assassinated in Thursday’s attack. … The Independent Election Commission’s deputy spokesman Aziz Ibrahimi said the postponement was meant to allow mourners to observe funeral rites for the slain officials.”
The Taliban-linked bodyguard also killed Kandahar intelligence chief Abdul Mohmin and injured the province’s governor, Zalmay Wesa, whose condition Kabul has “shrouded in mystery since the assault,” AP noted.
Thursday’s deadly incident took place during a high-level security meeting at a heavily fortified government compound in Kandahar where officials met to discuss security plans for Saturday’s election.
Gen. Mohammad Sharif Yaftali, the chief of staff for the Afghan National Army (ANA), told reporters, “The attack carried out by a bodyguard of the governor happened moments after the meeting finished, as they were leaving the compound.”
The three Americans injured by the Taliban — a U.S. service member, a coalition contractor and an American civilian — are in stable condition, AP reported, citing NATO.
“Raziq was a close U.S. ally despite widespread allegations of corruption. He ruled Kandahar with an iron fist and had survived several past assassination attempts, including one last year that killed five diplomats from the United Arab Emirates,” AP pointed out.
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