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Violence has marred the historic Afghan parliamentary elections as Taliban-led militants have conducted a series of violent attacks since late Saturday night to sabotage the landmark process.
Over a dozen police and soldiers including some foreign troopers have been killed or injured in the Taliban-led insurgency. One French soldier is also among the victims while two American troopers are among the injured men.
The militants also fired two rockets that slammed into a UN compound here, wounding one local staff, just hours after the voting began Sunday.
Jalalabad airport in east Afghanistan also came under rocket attacks Saturday night, but, according to officials, it caused no life or property damages.
Militants loyal to the former fundamentalist regime in their attempt to sabotage the voting process, according to locals, also fired rockets in the northern Kunduz and Badakhshan provinces along the border with Tajikistan but left no casualties.
Contrary to expectations, the voting in the troubled southern provinces of Kandahar, Zabul and Uruzgan, the hotbed of Taliban, began peacefully and no violence has been reported so far.
People in these provinces have lined up in long queues in front of polling stations to cast their votes and elect the Members of Parliament and Provincial Councils.
Twenty percent of voters were women in Taliban's stronghold Kandahar where they had no authority during Taliban reign except serving family in the premises of their houses.
"Despite Taliban threat I have come here to cast my vote in favor of my favorite candidate and strengthen law and stability in the country," a young lady named Friba, 22, told Xinhua in Kandahar city.
"By participating the election we would annihilate the threat of Taliban and al-Qaida," another lady teacher in Kandahar, Shukiba Sohail, said.
Remnants of the former Taliban regime who describe Sunday's poll as a US ploy to "legitimize the US occupation of Afghanistan" have vowed to disrupt the process.
Taliban's spokesman Mufti Abdul Latif Hakimi in a stern warning on Friday asked Afghans to stay away from the election and foil what he termed the US design in the country.
Nevertheless, Afghans eligible to vote began moving towards polling stations in early morning to cast ballots.
Voters were seen standing on thin queues in front of polling stations waiting for their turn to elect their representatives for the coming parliament in the war-torn nation.
President Hamid Karzai who cast his vote at a polling station in the capital city called on his countrymen to vehemently participate in Sunday's polls and elect honest people for the country's parliament.
In the meantime, Peter Erbon, an official of the UN-sponsored Joint Electoral Management Body (JEMB), described the election as peaceful. He said the election was held in a peaceful environment and he saw a healthy election in Afghanistan.
Over 12.5 million Afghans apparently have gone to polling stations to elect the members of parliament and provincial councils from among nearly 5,800 candidates amid tight security.
(Xinhua News Agency September 19, 2005)
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