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| Afghanistan/South Asia |
| Mosque bombing part of Taliban major plot |
| 2005-06-07 |
| Afghan investigators believe last week's suicide attack on a mosque was part of a plot that included an attempt to shoot down a plane by militants bent on creating maximum shock and dismay ahead of national elections. A mosque in the southern city of Kandahar was bombed on Wednesday during the funeral of an anti-Taliban cleric, shot dead three days earlier. Twenty people were killed including the chief of the capital's police force. The blast and the cleric's murder were directly linked and they in turn were believed to be related to other attacks on the same day, said presidential spokesman Jawed Ludin. "We also know that a rocket was fired on a military plane of the coalition forces," he told a news conference. "We think that all of these were in fact related ... part of a single plot aimed at creating maximum shock among the people," he said. "It's only logical to assume that the enemies of Afghanistan -- the remnants of the Taliban, al Qaeda elements with links to circles outside the country -- would have chosen this time to set a plot in motion," he said, referring to the September poll. A wave of violence preceded last year's presidential election but it was brought under control before polling day through collaboration between Afghan and foreign forces in the country and Afghanistan's neighbours, Ludin said. "We believe that a similar surge of violence may be related to the parliamentary elections. "It may be also linked to the fact that a strengthening peace process is ongoing," he said, referring to government attempts to persuade Taliban fighters to give up. "The enemies of Afghanistan may be deeply worried about that." Afghan and U.S. officials have long said Taliban and other militants are able to operate from the safety of the Pakistani side of their rugged border and they partly attribute last year's peaceful vote to a concerted Pakistani effort to seal the border. While he did not refer to Pakistan by name, Ludin said Afghanistan was again relying on its neighbours to help ensure a peaceful election. "We expect that our neighbouring countries will also collaborate with us on this as they did with the presidential election," he said. "Without their collaboration it may not be possible for us to have a secure election." |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |