52 killed in Kabul election centre blast

Kabul, April 22 

A suicide bomber blew himself up outside a voter registration centre in the Afghan capital Kabul on Sunday, killing at least 52 persons and wounding more than 100, in the most serious attack yet on preparations for elections scheduled for October.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack on a project of key importance to the credibility of President Ashraf Ghani’s government, which has been under international pressure to ensure long-delayed parliamentary polls take place this year.

Interior Ministry spokesman Najib Danesh said a bomber on foot approached the centre where officials were issuing identity cards as part of the registration process for around 10 million voters across Afghanistan. Registration began this month.

President Ghani issued a statement condemning the attack and said it “cannot divert us from our aims or weaken this national democratic process”.

A spokesman for the ministry of public health said at least 52 persons were confirmed dead and 112 wounded. He said the total could climb. The explosion destroyed cars and shattered windows in nearby buildings, leaving rubble strewn across the blood-stained street.

It was the deadliest blast in Kabul since about 100 persons were killed in January by a bomb concealed in an ambulance and it came after repeated warnings that militants could try to disrupt the election process. Tadamichi Yamamoto, the senior United Nations official in Afghanistan, issued a statement condemning the attack. “Compounding the callous disregard for the lives of civilians, the killing appears to be part of a wholly unacceptable effort by extremists to deter Afghan citizens from carrying out their constitutional right to take part in elections,” he said.

After weeks of relative calm, the blast took place in Dasht-e Barchi, an area of western Kabul inhabited by many members of the mainly Shi’ite Hazara minority, which has been repeatedly hit by attacks claimed by Islamic State.

“There were women, children. Everyone had come to get their identity cards,” said Bashir Ahmad who had been near the blast, which occurred despite heightened security after the January attack.

According to UN figures, more than 750 persons have been killed or maimed in suicide attacks and bombings by militant groups during the three months to March ahead of an expected start of the Taliban’s normal spring offensive.

Afghanistan’s international partners have insisted that the elections should be held this year before a presidential vote due in 2019, although there has been widespread scepticism that they will go ahead. Meanwhile, five persons were killed when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb in the northern Baghlan province. — Reuters

Voter registration process began on April 14

• Afghanistan began registering voters on April 14 for the long-delayed legislative elections. The voter registration process is designed to reduce the electoral fraud that has marred past ballots

• More than 7,000 voter registration centres have been set up across Afghanistan to handle about 10 million registrations

• The vote could be postponed to next year if registration of voters, many of whom do not have national identity cards, is not completed before winter sets

• Parliament is still sitting three years after its term officially expired and further delays would seriously weaken already fragile confidence in the political system 

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India condemns Afghan terror 

• India on Sunday strongly condemned the “cowardly and barbaric” terror attacks in Kabul and northern Baghlan province of Afghanistan in the latest wave of attacks that came ahead of parliamentary and district council elections in the country

• Referring to the Kabul attack, India said it was not only an attack on innocent civilians but also an attack on the democratic rights of the Afghan people

• Condemning the strikes in Kabul and Baghlan and calling them “cowardly and barbaric”, the Ministry of External Affairs said India stands ready to extend all possible assistance, including for treatment of those injured in the attacks

• India has been actively involved in reconstruction of war-ravaged Afghanistan and it has been pushing for an Afghan-owned and Afghan-led reconciliation process in the country to bring permanent peace and stability there