Afghans Arrest 85 in Preelection Crackdown

Afghan forces have arrested 85 people allegedly linked to the Taliban who may have been planning to disrupt next weekend’s presidential vote, authorities said Saturday.

Sixty of the arrests were made in southern Afghanistan, where the guerrillas were intercepted Friday as they tried to slip into the country from Pakistan, said Sayed Fazluddin Agha, a senior official in the border town of Spin Buldak.

“Their aim was to target voting centers and government troops in Helmand and Oruzgan provinces,” he said. “During the initial investigation, we found they were planning to attack the elections.”

Helmand and Oruzgan are part of the stronghold of the former Taliban regime, which was ousted by U.S.-led forces in 2001.

Meanwhile, in Kabul, the capital, 25 suspects allegedly linked to the Taliban and the Al Qaeda terrorist network were arrested early Saturday by Afghan intelligence agents backed by international peacekeepers, said Lt. Cmdr. Ken MacKillop, a spokesman for the international force. He gave no details about the alleged plot or whether it was linked to the Oct. 9 election.

The U.S. military, leading 18,000 troops hunting Taliban and Al Qaeda militants, said Saturday that it had thwarted planned attacks aimed at disrupting the vote, but warned of more violence to come.

“It only takes one person with a car bomb to get in there and get lucky and do something,” Army Maj. Scott Nelson told reporters.

Nelson said a significant threat still existed in Kabul, the southeastern region and the southern city of Kandahar. Taliban forces have tried to intimidate voters and local leaders, he added.

“They have significantly increased their information propaganda war. We see a lot of ‘night letters’ in villages, particularly in the south and southeast,” he said. Night letters are unsigned leaflets that are distributed clandestinely.

The threat of violence has been one factor behind a muted campaign so far, with incumbent Hamid Karzai making few appearances and some rivals calling for the poll to be delayed.

But on Saturday, campaigning was markedly more active.

Younis Qanooni, Karzai’s strongest challenger, traveled to Kandahar, in the heartland of the Pushtun ethnic majority that is expected to back its kinsman, Karzai.

Ethnic divisions will play a key role in the polls, analysts say. Qanooni is a Tajik, Karzai is Pushtun and Abdul Rashid Dostum, the third main contender, is Uzbek. Eighteen candidates are in the race.

Qanooni hopes to deny Karzai the majority he needs to win outright and force a November runoff.

More than 10 million Afghans have registered to vote. A three-day drive to register up to 800,000 Afghan refugees in Pakistan who are eligible to vote began Friday. About 340,000 had registered by Saturday, organizers said.