7 shot in Taliban pre-election attack

KANDAHAR – Taliban militants shot dead seven Afghan civilians after finding a registration document for Sunday’s milestone elections in their car, a provincial governor said yesterday.

The attack on Tuesday in the central province of Uruzgan is the latest in a wave of violence ahead of the parliamentary and provincial council polls which has left more than 1 000 people dead this year. Governor Jan Mohammad Khan told AFP that the rebels stopped a vehicle with seven people inside in Gizab district.”They searched everybody, and found an official document, a car registration for election day, on one of them.Then the Taliban killed the seven people,” Khan said.Separately on Tuesday Taliban guerrillas hanged an intelligence official in the southeastern province of Zabul, a known hotbed for the ousted hardline militia, police said.”A man named Hamidullah who works for the district intelligence department was captured and killed by the Taliban.He was hanged,” local police chief Ghulam Aidar told AFP.The Taliban have vowed to sabotage preparations for Afghanistan’s first parliamentary elections for more than 30 years.But last month they said they would not target voting booths on polling day to avoid civilian casualties.US-led forces ousted the Taliban in late 2001 for failing to hand over Osama bin Laden after the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.- Nampa-AFPGovernor Jan Mohammad Khan told AFP that the rebels stopped a vehicle with seven people inside in Gizab district.”They searched everybody, and found an official document, a car registration for election day, on one of them.Then the Taliban killed the seven people,” Khan said.Separately on Tuesday Taliban guerrillas hanged an intelligence official in the southeastern province of Zabul, a known hotbed for the ousted hardline militia, police said.”A man named Hamidullah who works for the district intelligence department was captured and killed by the Taliban.He was hanged,” local police chief Ghulam Aidar told AFP.The Taliban have vowed to sabotage preparations for Afghanistan’s first parliamentary elections for more than 30 years.But last month they said they would not target voting booths on polling day to avoid civilian casualties.US-led forces ousted the Taliban in late 2001 for failing to hand over Osama bin Laden after the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.- Nampa-AFP