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At last the much-discussed first-ever Afghan presidential elections in the post-Taliban nation were held Saturday amid hopes and fears as the anti-government militias fired several rockets on Kabul and other cities in an attempt to disrupt it.
Remnants of the Taliban whose regime was unseated by the US-led invasion in late 2001 have vowed to derail the US-style presidential elections that ended at 6 PM local time.
Around 30 people were killed and 10 others including two children and three US-led coalition soldiers injured in Taliban-related activities throughout the day across the country.
These three foreign troopers were injured after the suspected Taliban operatives attacked their base in Char Asiab district 25 km south of Kabul while the children fell victim to six rockets landed in Helmand's provincial Lashkargah.
The fundamentalist Taliban and their like-minded groups in a series of attacks since early morning have killed at least six individuals including three policemen and voters in south Afghanistan.
To counter Taliban's threat, the US warplanes raided a suspected hideout of the militia in the mountainous Charchino district of Urzgan killing 25 insurgents while the movement's spokesman Mullah Abdul Latif Hakimi rejected the claim as baseless.
According to Hakimi, all victims of the bombardment were ordinary civilians.
The crucial polls for which over 13 million Afghans including over 3 million refugees in the neighboring countries of Pakistan and Iran registered for, was held amid extra tight security provided by around 100,000 Afghan, US and NATO-led troops.
Personnel of Afghan law enforcing agencies in conjunction with the US-dominated troops and NATO-led peacekeeping force have arrested several suspected terrorists and foiled sabotage attacks since Friday.
Two vehicles including a tanker full of explosive materials were impounded in the southern Kandahar city and five occupants were taken into custody.
Another two suspected terrorists who were trying to disrupt voting process, according to Defense Ministry spokesman were apprehended in southeast Paktia province.
One rocket propelled grenade(RPG) and one Kalashnikov were recovered from their possession, Defense Ministry spokesman Zahir Azimi said.
The insurgents, according to officials even have not spared the peaceful northern provinces as they fired a rocket in Baghlan at noon adding to the civilians' concern.
Parallel to increasing militancy political rivalry has also been haunting the war-stricken Afghans as Karzai's opponents in the race had rejected the poll as a bogus.
Opposition candidates earlier alleged that government workers at polling stations were using washable ink in marking voter fingers to enable them vote more than once in Karzai's favor.
"This presidential election is a bogus one, its result is unacceptable and so we demand holding new election," Karzai's 15 rivals said in a statement issued at the end of the day.
"Any government comes to power through this fake election would have no legitimacy," the opposition warned in the statement.
Meanwhile, the Joint Electoral Management Body (JEMB) or the joint UN-Afghan election commission has rejected the allegation as unfounded but pledged to initiate a probe into it.
Concluding the balloting, as observers believe would not mean the end of insurgency in the war-torn country as Taliban's chief Mullah Omar termed the election as a "ploy to justify US occupation of Afghanistan" and vowing to continue Jihad or holy war until the US-led foreign troops leave his land.
(Xinhua News Agency October 10, 2004)
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