Death Toll in Afghan Election Rally Attack Rises to 22

A bike carrying explosives detonated among supporters of Nazifa Yousefibek, a female candidate for Takhar province,

File image of Afghan police stand outside a voter registration center which was attacked by a suicide bomber in Kabul earlier in 2018. Image used for representational purposes only. 

(Photo: Rahmat Gul/AP)

The death toll in a bomb attack on an Afghan election rally has risen to at least 22 people, officials said on Sunday, 14 October, as the country braces for more violence ahead of polls on 20 October.

Dozens of people were killed or wounded in parliamentary election-related attacks across Afghanistan on Saturday, 13 October, as militants step up attacks on the ballot. A motorcycle carrying explosives detonated among supporters of Nazifa Yousefibek, a female candidate for the northeastern province of Takhar, provincial governor spokesman Mohammad Jawad Hejri told AFP.

Most of the 22 killed and 36 wounded were civilians, he said. Provincial health director Hafizullah Safi put the death toll slightly higher at 23.

In the western province of Herat, two gunmen attacked the campaign office of a candidate in Injeel district, killing two people, provincial governor spokesman Jailani Farhad said.

A nine-year-old boy and a security guard died in the attack and two others were wounded. Violence related to the long-delayed legislative vote has killed or wounded hundreds of people in recent months.

At least nine candidates have died so far, most of them in targeted killings, according to the Independent Election Commission.