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

Talkback With The Taliban- Ask your questions on an on-line forum

Barbaric, most definitely, but the Taliban apparently aren't as backwards as we might think.   Believe it or not, they actually have a website "The Voice of Jihad" up and running with options  in Dari, Arabic, English, Pashto, Farsi and Urdu. And wanna get as up close and personal with a Taliban militant as you can without actually traveling to that God forsaken land?  Any burning questions you have for those enlightened souls?  They have a forum where you can ask any question you want.  According to The Guardian,  people in the 'Your questions and Zabihullah Mujahid's answers' forum  are mostly concerned about the Taliban's decision to conduct secret 'talks' with the U.S. considering they still have the upper hand.

Questioner Ahmad Ahsan said Taliban supporters had long trusted the leadership but a proposal to open an office in Qatar for talks with foreigners was causing disquiet.

"We have always believed in our leaders and elders. Now we are restless in our minds," Ahsan wrote in the Pashto language.

Mujahid defended the decision, saying the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan – the name the Taliban use for their movement – was led by Mullah Omar, a "person who had proved himself to the world" and that was enough.

He said the Taliban remained steadfast in their objectives. "Leave the rest to Allah and pray," he wrote.

Madiha Khalid from Germany, asked what would happen to girls' schools if the Taliban came back. The Taliban banned girls from school during their hardline rule.

But Mujahid blamed a lack of funds to ensure girls' schools were run according to Islamic tenets.

"We want our mothers and sisters to have education according to Islamic framework," he said.

Lack of funds? Really? School girls have suffered terribly at the hands of the Taliban, from poison to acid attacks, and I don't see that changing any time soon.

But it might be fun to ask a question or two- not that you'd necessarily get an answer. And the forum isn't in English, and translating the page doesn't get you much other than a bunch of squiggles with a few paragraphs of English here and there, so even Mujahid did respond, it's unlikely it would be translatable.