At least 12 people were killed and more than 30 injured in an explosion at an election rally held for a female candidate of Afghanistan’s parliamentary polls on Oct. 20, officials said on Saturday.
Khalil Asir, a police spokesman in the northeast province of Takhar, said explosives were placed in a motorcycle near the rally, which was to have been addressed by the candidate, Nazifa Yousufi Bek.
“So far we received a report of 12 people dead and 32 injured. The victims include security officials and civilians,” said Asir.
No militant group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
Scores of people had gathered to listen to the candidate, but police said she was not at the rally at the time of the blast.
Separately, an explosion close to a campaign rally of a parliamentary candidate in Enjil district of Herat province killed two people, including a child and a security personnel, wounded as more others on Saturday.
Bek is one of 417 women contesting seats across the country, more than ever before, despite deadly suicide attacks on election rallies and offices apparently aimed at forcing voters to boycott the vote scheduled for Oct. 20.
This is the third attack against the election campaign process this month.
The latest explosion comes after another attack at a campaign office in Helmand province on Tuesday which claimed the lives of eight people, including the election candidate, Saleh Mohammad Achakzai.
Candidates, regardless of gender, are braving violence and opposition from social conservatives in a campaign seen as a test of the war-torn nation’s democratic institutions.
Takhar, a province bordering Tajikistan has long been a hotbed of the Taliban insurgency. The Taliban has directed Afghans to boycott the upcoming polls.
At least eight candidates have been killed in insurgent attacks since the beginning of July, soon after the candidate registration process was finalized.
On September 25, Nasir Mubarez, a candidate for the Kochis, from Kandahar, was killed by unknown armed men in a shooting in Kandahar City’s PD2.
On September 2, Anwar Niazi, a hopeful from central Parwan province, was killed and two others wounded when a magnetic IED was detonated against the vehicle they were traveling in. The incident took place in Kabul city center, in Shirpoor, in PD10.
In August, Jalal Salehi, a runner from Kabul, was killed during a security forces operation in Kabul’s Shakar Dara district.
Another candidate, former member of Ghazni provincial council, Sayed Obaidullah Sadat, was killed in Ghazni on July 14 by unknown armed men.
On July 1, the Afghan Sikh and Hindu community leader, Ottar Singh Khalsa, who was running for parliamentary election, was killed in a suicide attack in Jalalabad city in Nangarhar province.
On July 30, another Nangarhar candidate, Hayatullah Khan Rahmani, was killed when a suicide bomber targeted him in Rodat district in the province.
More than 2,500 candidates are running for 249 parliamentary seats in the October 20 elections.
