WhatFinger


Taliban ‘chop off’ Afghan voters fingers

Afghan voters give Karzai the finger



imageTaliban insurgents have reportedly sliced off fingers of some voters in the troubled southern provinces of Afghanistan for casting their ballots on the polling day. In a news conference in Kabul, observers of the Free and Fair Election Foundation (FEFA) of Afghanistan said that they had witnessed the “illegal and brutal punishments” in southern provinces where Taliban have long thrived.

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“Our observers saw two voters whose fingers, with the ink, was cut off in Kandahar. This was on Election Day. This was in the afternoon,” said Nader Nadery, the chairman of the group. The insurgents had warned they would slit throats and chop off fingers of anyone who voted in Thursday’s presidential and provincial councils’ election. The fingers of Afghan voters were dipped into a bottle of indelible ink; a measure that prevented them from voting multiple times. Sources said militants made good on pre-election threats by punishing voters in the violence-wracked Kandahar and Helmand provinces. The independent sources also fear the turnout may have been as low as 10 percent and up to 25-30 percent in some southern and eastern provinces due to Taliban intimidation. The Taliban insurgents conducted more than 130 attacks across the war-ravaged country on election day. However, according to the latest official reports, election day brought sporadic violence in which at least 26 people were killed. There have been reports of militant attacks in 15 provinces. European Union (EU) observers on Saturday welcomed Afghanistan’s elections as generally fair, but not universally free. Some Afghanistan-based observer groups say they witnessed irregularities, including stuffing of ballot boxes and proxy voting in the country’s presidential elections. Both campaigns of incumbent President Hamid Karzai and his main rival former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah have claimed victory in the Thursday polls. Abdullah has issued a statement detailing about 40 incidents of alleged irregularities, and claiming that officials pressured people to vote for Karzai. Analysts believe the result which will emerge in the coming days may not give any candidates a clear majority and force the top two contenders into a runoff race. A contested and disputed election, meanwhile, could offer the Obama administration with an opportunity to “remake a system of government so dysfunctional that it has enabled a massive Taliban resurgence,” Time reported. Violence in the conflict-torn country is reportedly on the rise despite the presence of more than 100,000 US-led soldiers in Afghanistan.


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Dr. Paul L. Williams -- Bio and Archives

Paul L. Williams, Ph.D., is the author of such best-selling books as The Day of Islam, The Al Qaeda Connection, Osama’s Revenge: The Next 9/11, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to the Crusades and The Vatican Exposed. An award-winning journalist, he is a frequent guest on such national news networks as ABC News, CBS News, Fox News, MSNBC, and NPR.

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