ISLAMABAD: The Taliban have vowed a nationwide campaign of terrorism targeting candidates and voters in Saturday’s general election in Pakistan.
Suicide bombers have been dispatched to all four of the country’s provinces, with the aim of killing as many people as possible and derailing the country’s fragile democracy.
Correspondence between the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, Hakimullah Mehsud, and the group’s spokesman, Ehsanullah Ehsan, has been deliberately leaked to deter people from the polls.
”We don’t accept the system of infidels which is called democracy,” Mr Mehsud wrote in the letter dated May 1. ”I am sending a list of attacks and the modus operandi, along with a separate list of fedayeen [suicide bombers] You take care of attacks in Punjab and Singh. I will take care of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan.”
A Taliban commander in the restive north-west of the country said suicide bombers had already been sent to cities across the country.
”The Taliban has dispatched several fedayeen to carry out attacks on the election across Pakistan,” the commander said.
This election campaign has already been the most violent in Pakistan’s 66-year history as an independent nation. Since campaigning began last month, the Taliban have killed 117 people in attacks on candidates and political rallies. The terrorist network has mainly targeted secular parties, in particular the ruling Pakistan People’s Party and its coalition partners.
But in the last week of the campaign, parties previously allied to the Taliban, such as Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, have been subject to attacks too.
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