Taliban Threatens Violence During Upcoming Presidential Election

It's Afghanistan's turn to vote for a new president on April 5th, and although the Afghan people won't be dealing with a total sham election- like the North Koreans just experienced with Kim Jong-un's 100 percent of the vote- they are being threatened with violence by the Taliban. Why? Because they believe that the election is an "American conspiracy."  Whatever that's supposed to mean.

However, the government isn't taking the threats too seriously in spite of the fact that the Taliban has a penchant for violence and wound up killing a bunch of civilians and soldiers during their last elections in 2009. Najib Danesh, Interior Ministry spokesman, believes it's just "propaganda" to "disseminate panic," and has assured the Afghan people that there will be security during the election process. Good luck with that, since the Taliban's Zabihullah Mujahid has apparently told clerics to tell their congregants about the American conspiracy (which no doubt will rile them up), and to stay away from polling booths if they value their lives.

An email to news agencies stated that the targets will be any workers involved with the election process including activists, callers etc.

 "we have given orders to all our mujahedin to use all force at their disposal to disrupt these upcoming sham elections."

Hamid Karzai's reign will come to an end after 13 years.

Source: RFE/RL