Taleban Deny Mosque Blast Involvement

The Taleban, which in the past has claimed credit for several attacks on government officials and security personnel, has quickly denied responsibility for the June 1 suicide bombing at a mosque in Kandahar that killed at least 20 people, including the police chief of Kabul.

Government officials believe the bombing is part of a recently stepped up campaign of violence, designed to disrupt legislative elections scheduled for September 18.

The bomber struck during funeral services for Maulavi Abdullah Fayaz, a prominent pro-government cleric who was assassinated May 29 in his office in the southern city, long a Taleban stronghold.

Among the dead was General Mohammad Akram Khakraizwal, a well-regarded law officer who was recently transferred to Kabul from Mazar-e-Sharif, in part to take on criminal gangs who have been carrying out kidnappings and armed robberies in the capital.

While Taleban insurgents have engaged in several fights with US-led Coalition forces since the end of a relatively calm winter, the fundamentalist Islamic group has never been known to attack a mosque.

Abdul Latif Hakimi, a Taleban spokesman IWPR contacted by telephone, vehemently denied that the group was behind the attack. He said he had spoken with several Taleban members in Kandahar, and they had denied any role in the bombing.

"We are not so weak that we have to carry out such attacks. We fight face-to-face with Americans," Hakimi told IWPR. "We have respect for mosques, and we'd never carry out such an attack on a mosque.

"We could have killed Khakraizwal anywhere we wanted," he added. "We didn't need to kill innocent people."

Interior ministry spokesman Lutfullah Mashal confirmed that Khakraizwal was among the dead, and vowed that investigators would eventually find out who was responsible.

"One thing that's clear is that this attack was carried out inside a mosque, which is 100 per cent against Islam," said Mashal. "This demonstrates the weakness of the enemies of Islam and Afghanistan. They don't have the capability to fight our security forces, and that's why they're destroying mosques."

Security in the country has been deteriorating for the past month, noted Soraya Parlika, head of the Women's Union and a candidate in the upcoming election. "It's going to have a negative effect on all the candidates," she said of the attack.

"It intimidates people," she said. "If things keep going like this, people will be afraid to turn out for the election."

"The Coalition abhors this atrocious act of violence upon innocent civilians and a mosque," said US Army colonel Jim Yonts, a spokesman for the Coalition command. "Tragic events such as this only solidify our resolve that we must eradicate terrorism now. The future of Afghanistan depends on it."

Fayaz, head of the Kandahar Council of Clerics, was shot to death in his office May 29 in Kandahar. The Taleban had claim responsibility for the assassination.

Fayaz was an outspoken supporter of President Hamid Karzai's US-backed government. Ten days before his death, he presided at a gathering of hundreds of clerics from around the country, which stripped Taleban leader Mullah Omar, a fugitive, of his religious authority.

The gathering also declared the Taleban's call for holy war against US forces and the Afghan government to be against Shariah, or Islamic law. The mosque where the bombing took place had recently been after Fayaz.

The latest attack was the worst in a spate of escalating violence.

At least 340 people, more than 200 of them militants, have been killed in fighting or in extremist attacks since April 1, according to various statements from US and Afghan officials.

Five days of riots beginning on May 10 left 15 people dead in at least 12 of the country’s provinces. The disturbances were ostensibly touched off by a Newsweek magazine article alleging desecration of the Koran at a US prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

But Karzai has charged that the riots were actually orchestrated by "foreign and domestic" opponents of a democratic Afghanistan. Police, political analysts and even some of the demonstrators themselves echoed his opinion.

A political analyst, Qayoum Babak, predicted at the time that the riots were a harbinger of future trouble as enemies of the government sought to disrupt the election campaign. The magazine report, later retracted, was merely an excuse to start trouble, he and other analysts said.

The Kandahar attack occurred as the government was stepping up efforts to integrate former Taleban fighters back into society. Karzai has announced an amnesty programme for former insurgents who renounce violence and are not wanted for crimes.