Jalalabad [Afghanistan]: Election-related violence in Afghanistan showed no signs of abating as at least 11 people, including six children were killed in a roadside explosion in eastern Nangarhar province on Sunday, as parliamentary polls in 14 out of 34 provinces is underway.
Nangarhar provincial spokesperson Ataullah Khogyani told Xinhua, “A mine planted by terrorists struck a civilian car in Achin district at 11:00 am local time today killing 11 civilians including a woman and six children.” The Taliban group has not commented on the explosion so far.
Elections were held across the nation on Saturday to the ‘Wolesi Jirga’ or lower house of the Afghanistan Parliament. The voting has been criticised by many people due to the introduction of the biometric verification system, which has caused technical glitches, slowing down the process.
In some places, polling did not begin at the scheduled time 8 am (local time), forcing the country’s election commission to continue the voting on Sunday. The polling stations opened at 7 am (local time) in 14 provinces and is are set to close at 4 pm (local time).
The country’s interior minister Wais Barmak confirmed that 192 security incidents had taken place on the day of parliamentary polling.
Meanwhile, polling in Kandahar and Ghazni provinces have been deferred due to security issues.
The Taliban had earlier threatened to disrupt the elections in the war-torn country and had also claimed responsibility behind the deaths of numerous candidates in the past. In the run-up to the elections, scores of candidates died in campaign rallies in different parts of the country.
Over 2,500 candidates are in the fray for the parliamentary polls.
[source_without_link]ANI[/source_without_link]