Afghanistan’s Taliban movement on Thursday ordered voters to boycott August elections and wage holy war to ”free” the country from Western troops, raising the stakes in their lethal insurgency.
The latest in a surge of attacks killed eight Afghan soldiers and guards, raising concern that insecurity will see poor voter turnout and jeopardise the legitimacy of the August 20 presidential and provincial polls.
In a statement released to the media, the militia ordered its fighters to block all roads on the eve of what is only the second presidential ballot in Afghan history, in order to stop voters from going to polling stations.
”All Afghans, in line with their Afghan and Islamic principles, must boycott this deceiving American process,” said the statement, charging that the elections were intended to distract attention from United States war-time failures.
”To achieve real independence instead of going to fake election centres, they must go to jihadi trenches, and through resistance and jihad [holy war] they must free their invaded country from the invaders,” it said.
It called for attacks on ”enemy centres”, understood to refer mainly to bases of Western and Afghan forces who are allied in battle against the Taliban-led insurgency that peaked this year with record attacks.
The Taliban did not, however, directly order strikes on voting centres, according to an emailed copy of the Pashtu-language statement seen by Agence France-Presse.
Mujahedin (holy fighters) ”must launch operations against enemy centres,” said the statement from the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, the self-styled name of the 1996-2001 Taliban regime, which was overthrown by US-led troops.
”They must prevent people from attending the elections and one day before the elections all roads and highways must be totally closed to government and civilian vehicles, and they must inform people,” it said.
The Taliban have previously called for a boycott of the polls, a landmark in the US- and Nato-led drive to move Afghanistan towards democracy after decades of war, but this was their most inflammatory statement so far before the vote.
The militia regularly calls for ”jihad” against the government and the US-dominated military forces backing the administration.
Anyone who took part in the elections, when people will vote for a head of state and provincial councillors, would be seen as an ally of the ”occupying forces”. The militia has previously killed people on such allegations.
Thursday’s statement was released two days after the top UN official in Afghanistan, Kai Eide, urged the Taliban not to disrupt the elections and acknowledged there were ”significant” security concerns.
The UN electoral assistance team noted attacks on campaign teams, cases of intimidation and the assassinations of three candidates for the provincial council election to be held alongside the presidential vote.
Electoral workers and government supporters this week praised a pre-election ceasefire, reached between local Taliban and Afghan elders in a troubled district of northwestern Badghis province.
The deal, a first in the country, was announced by the office of President Hamid Karzai, who leads the pack of 41 presidential candidates, but was denied by the mainstream Taliban group.
”It’s a good example for other parts of the country,” Independent Election Commission deputy chief Zekria Barakzai told reporters in Kabul on Thursday.
”I do know that this process is going on in other parts of the country so security will be provided for the election day,” he said, expressing hope that militants would not ”interrupt” the process.
The ceasefire was reached as British and US troops pressed major offensives on Taliban strongholds in the southern province of Helmand.
Helmand sees some of the worst insurgent violence and several of its districts are in militant hands, preventing election preparations.
In a new attack in the province, a roadside bomb tore into an Afghan army convoy on Wednesday and killed four Afghan soldiers, the defence ministry said.
Four private Afghan security guards were killed in a similar blast elsewhere in the province on Thursday, the interior ministry said. — AFP
