Sofa bomb claims life of MP as Taliban targets election candidates
A FORMER Communist generalturned-politician has been killed by a Taliban bomb hidden in his sofa.
Abdul Jabar Qahraman was campaigning for Saturday’s parliamentary election in Afghanistan and became the tenth candidate to die ahead of the polls when the blast tore through his campaign office.
The Taliban took responsibility for the attack, which also killed three of Mr Qahraman’s companions in the capital of Helmand province.
The dead candidate had been a key figure in the last days of Afghanistan’s Soviet-backed government, holding military power in the south of the country until he went into exile in 1993.
After the fall of the Taliban, he returned to Afghanistan and was elected as an MP, recently advising Ashraf Ghani, the president, on security in southern parts of the country.
A Taliban statement said they had killed “a renowned communist.”
His assassination came amid final preparations for Saturday’s poll when nearly nine million registered voters will choose MPS for 250 seats in parliament.
More than 30 people have been killed in election-related violence over the past several weeks. The Taliban have ordered a boycott of the election and threatened to attack anyone involved in what they call a “bogus American vote”.
Mr Ghani said that “such brutal acts of the terrorists and their supporters cannot weaken people’s trust in peaceful and democratic processes”.
Seven other people were wounded in the blast, the Helmand governor’s spokesman said, adding that the bomb had been placed in Mr Qahraman’s sofa.
The death toll in the country’s longrunning insurgency has escalated in recent months, with concerns that Saturday will be a flashpoint for Taliban violence.
Last week, 22 people were killed in an explosion at an election rally for a female candidate in the northeastern province of Takhar, while dozens of police have been killed or wounded in attacks on checkpoints this week.
The election is already three years later than scheduled, having been postponed by political disputes and rows over electoral reforms.
Saturday’s polling is a test of the Afghan government’s authority as Donald Trump grows frustrated with a lack of progress over one of America’s longest wars.