Taliban appeal for boycott of election

KABUL: Afghanistan’s ousted Taliban have called for a boycott of next year’s presidential election and a holy war against US troops while also threatening attacks on those working with foreigners or in the Afghan police and army. In one of a series of leaflets faxed to AFP Tuesday, the hardline militia said Americans and Westerners were trying to turn Afghanistan away from Islam through “democracy.”

“Under this slogan, the enemies of our country have started the so-called free election drama,” said the leaflet which a Taliban spokesman confirmed by satellite phone was from the Islamic militia and was to be distributed across Afghanistan.

“And they want to impose their slaves and puppets on the proud nation of holy warriors,” said the leaflet from the “Taliban press centre.” The Taliban called for a boycott of the presidential election which is scheduled for June 2004. “Lets reject this so-called free election and prove to them by boycotting the election that Afghans are a proud nation that no-one, by no means can make them slaves,” it said.

The militants also called for a holy war against the United States, which it said was using the “war on terror” as a pretext for a war on Islam. “America and Bush at the top of it, who is the pharaoh of the present age, and the Jewish Zionists have started the very covert war against the Islamic world under the name of the war against terror,” which it said was in revenge for Western defeat in the Crusades. —Agencies

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