KANDAHAR, June 21: Suspected Taliban attacked an electoral vehicle in Afghanistan on Tuesday, killing husband of a woman working on upcoming legislative polls and injuring the driver, officials said.
The incident in Maiwand, a troubled district in Kandahar province, was the second fatal attack this month linked to September’s parliamentary vote. The hardline Islamic rebels have vowed to disrupt the election.
The victim was escorting his wife, an employee with the UN-backed Afghan electoral commission, when the militants struck, said Abdul Qahar Wasifi, regional electoral official in Kandahar.
“One of our electoral vehicles came under fire by unknown people from a white Toyota Corolla. The husband of one of our female staff who was travelling with his wife in the jeep was killed and the driver was wounded,” Wasifi told AFP.
In Kandahar, the Taliban’s stronghold before their fall from power nationally in late 2001, women find it difficult to travel freely unless accompanied by a male relative.—AFP
