Taliban Punish Voters in Wake of Afghan Election

The justice ministry director for Afghanistan's Kunduz province was killed when his car exploded on Wednesday.

Insurgents Attack Civilians and Steal Ballot Boxes as Part of a Campaign to Take Advantage of Political Uncertainty

By ANAND GOPAL
WSJ

KABUL -- The Taliban are attempting to exact revenge on Afghan voters and disrupt the ballot count -- part of a campaign to exploit the political uncertainty after last week's presidential election and try to undermine the results.

Since the Aug. 20 election, Taliban fighters have launched nearly a dozen attacks. They have severed the fingers of voters, stolen ballot boxes, and murdered government officials. Afghan police have been reluctant to move into Taliban-controlled areas to quell the violence.

In Wardak province, west of Kabul, local officials say the insurgents have been setting up checkpoints to look for voters who are easily identifiable by the blue ink marks on their fingertips. In one such incident in Saydabad district, the Taliban killed three voters, according to witnesses. Also in Wardak, insurgents chopped off the fingers of four people who had voted at the provincial capital, according to local tribal elder Maualem Ghulab. Human-rights officials reported a similar attack in Kandahar shortly after the election.

In at least three provinces, insurgents also intercepted convoys carrying ballots and burned the papers, most recently on Wednesday. Election officials say the destroyed ballots represented a minuscule portion of total votes cast.

(Continued here.)