President Ashraf Ghani has been reported unhert in today’s suicide attack by Taliban at his election rally
More than 26 people have died and more than 40 have been injured in a bomb blast that took place near the election rally venue of the President of Afghanistan – Ashraf Ghani today, i.e., Tuesday, September 17, 2019.
The President was present when the blast happened. The President has been reported to be safe. The bomb blast occurred in Charikar, the capital of Parwan Province, North of Kabul in Afghanistan. A suicide bomber, laden with explosives on a motorbike, triggered the blast at the entrance of the venue where people had lined up for the security-check. Taliban has been quick to claim the responsibility of the attack.
The attack gains significance as Afghanistan is all set for the Presidential polls which will begin from September 28, 2019.
Separately, another blast went off near Kabul’s Green Zone which houses the headquarters of Ministry of Defence, the United States (U.S.) Embassy and the NATO’s office. Taliban has claimed the responsibility of this attack as well. This is the 5th blast since September 2019 with 60 deaths and 194 injured people.
Taliban has issued a warning that it will increase the number of attacks targeting the Government and the foreign forces (U.S. armed forces). Taliban wants to discourage people from exercise their right to vote during the Presidential polls. However, the Afghanistan Government is determined to hold the elections in the interest of the country and has deployed 70,000 security forces across the country.
Prior to this, last week, the President of U.S. – Donald Trump had cancelled the secret meeting which was scheduled to be held with the leaders of Taliban. He was also supposed to meet the President of Afghanistan – Ashraf Ghani along with the Chief Negotiator of Taliban – Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar at his Camp David retreat. But he called of the entire peace talks with the militant group after Taliban claimed the responsibility of an attack in which 16 people, including a U.S. soldier, were killed.
Trump has also slammed the Taliban leaders for thinking that claiming the responsibility of the attack would improve their negotiating position.
If things had gone well, the next step would have involved Ashraf Ghani and Mulla Baradar meeting face-to-face. This would have been a major development as Taliban negotiator is not authorized to talk to the Afghan Government. There have been 9 rounds of talks between Taliban and U.S. representatives in Doha, Qatar.
As per the draft proposal of the now scrapped peace talks, U.S. would have withdrawn 5,400 troops from 5 bases across Afghanistan within 135 days provided Taliban committed to restoring peace in the region. For the records, the U.S. has 14,000 soldiers in Afghanistan, alongside NATO troops.
