Scores die registering to vote

Suicide bomber kills 57 in Kabul in move seen as targeting election credibility

AN Islamic State suicide bomber killed at least 57 people, including women and children, and wounded 119 outside a voter registration centre in the Afghan capital Kabul yesterday in the latest attack on election preparations.

The assaults underscore growing concern about security in the leadup to legislative elections scheduled for October 20, which are seen as a test-run for next year’s presidential poll.

“It happened at the entrance. It was a suicide attack,” Kabul police chief Dawood Amin said.

Both the health and interior ministries confirmed the latest toll for the attack, which was claimed by the Islamic State group via its propaganda arm Amaq.

“They are civilians, including women and children,” Interior Ministry spokesman Najib Danish said.

The centre, in a neighbourhood heavily populated by Shiites in the west of the city, was also being used by people to register for national identification certificates, which they need to sign up to vote.

Sheets of paper and passport- sized photos lay scattered amid shattered glass and pools of blood on the street near badly damaged cars – grim evidence of the force of the blast that has drawn international condemnation.

“This senseless violence shows the cowardice and inhumanity of the enemies of democracy and peace in Afghanistan,” US ambassador John Bass wrote on Twitter. Nato also condemned the bombing.

The last major attack in Kabul was on March 21 when an IS bomber blew himself up in a crowd celebrating the Persian New Year holiday and killed at least 33 people.

Ariana TV showed angry crowds shouting “Death to the government!” and “Death to the Taliban!”

A wounded man in a hospital bed wept as he told the network: “I don’t know where my daughters are. God damn the attackers!”

A witness to the attack named Akbar told Tolo TV: “Now we know the government cannot provide us security: we have to get armed and protect ourselves.”

Elsewhere, a roadside explosion in the northern province of Baghlan yesterday killed six people, inclu- ding three women and two children.

President Ashraf Ghani condemned both attacks as heinous.

Afghanistan began registering voters on April 14 for the long-delayed legislative elections.

Officials have acknowledged security is a major concern because the Taliban and other militant groups control or contest large swathes of the country.

Afghan police and troops have been tasked with protecting polling centres, even as they struggle to get the upper hand against insurgents on the battlefield. Militants launched rockets at a voter registration centre in the northwestern province of Badghis on Friday.

At least one police officer had been killed and another person wounded, officials said, blaming the Taliban.

On Tuesday last week, gunmen attacked a voter registration centre in the central province of Ghor, kidnapping three election workers and two policemen. Taliban militants released the five on Thursday.

Over the next two months, authorities hope to register up to 14 million adults at more than 7 000 polling centres for the elections.