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A suicide bomber detonated a rickshaw packed with explosives in a busy marketplace in northern Afghanistan on Tuesday, killing at least 17 people and injuring dozens.While no one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, last week Taliban insurgents threatened to âuse all forceâ to disrupt the country's upcoming election, which they condemned as a âplot of the invaders.ââMake it known to each and every person of this society that their casting ballots and participation is considered assistance of the infidels and their stooges against Islam,â the Taliban said in a statement released on March 10. The group vowed to target poll workers, security forces, and any public site used for the election.âIf anyone still persists on participating then they are solely responsible of any loss in the future,â the statement read.Tuesdayâs bombing took place in Maimana, the capital of Faryab Province, and killed several women and shopkeepers, as well as at least two children. A pregnant woman was also among the injured. Although Faryab is relatively stable, the province has seen previous attacks, including one at a mosque that killed more than 45 people in late 2012.The latest attack drew condemnation from local leaders, presidential candidates, and officials with the UN mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), who noted that 190 civilians were killed in the first two and a half months of 2014 â an increase of 14 percent over the same period last year.âThe continuing rise in civilian deaths from IEDs is tragic,â UNAMAâs acting head Nicholas Haysom said in a statement, referring to the improvised explosive devices often used by suicide bombers. âTheir use in a distinctly civilian location such as a market is atrocious and cannot be justified.âThe Taliban has been abducting campaign workers and terrorizing villagers in a series of attacks ahead of the election on April 5, including one in Faryab last week in which insurgents killed three village elders.The bombing in Maimanaâs busy marketplace appeared to signal a change in the Talibanâs strategy. Although there is a possibility that the attack is unrelated to the election, local authorities suspect that a nearby police headquarters may have been the intended target.âWe donât know enough about todayâs attack, and we actually donât know a lot about many of these attacks,â Patricia Gossman, a researcher on Afghanistan for Human Rights Watch, told VICE News. âBut this does seem to be an example of the Taliban expanding the range of targets to a broader group of people, and thatâs very troubling, very disturbing.âHuman Rights Watch has noted that at least half of the 7,000 polling centers planned for the countryâs election face serious security threats. It issued a statement earlier this month denouncing the Talibanâs threats and listing a series of recent kidnappings and killings carried out in connection to the vote.âWeâve seen a bit of ratcheting up,â Gossman said. âOf course, there was a lot of violence in previous elections as well, but the statement the Taliban have issued suggests this is more of an escalation on their part. If this continues, it certainly could cast a shadow over the integrity of the vote.âAfghans are set to choose among nine presidential candidates in the countryâs first democratic transfer of power. Thousands of election monitors will attempt to prevent a repeat of the widespread fraud that marred the 2009 presidential vote, when Karzai was reelected. He is barred from running again because of term limits.Martine van Bijlert, co-director of the Afghan Analysts Network, was cautious about blaming the Taliban for the rickshaw suicide bombing.âWe are talking about violence and itâs appearing before the election, but itâs actually hard to know whether itâs related to the elections or not,â she told VICE News. âSome of it is just part of the general violence thatâs going on all the time.âIf the Taliban did order the bombing, van Bijlert added that the group may not be eager to claim responsibility for an attack in which so many civilians with no apparent connection to the election died.âSo far, what we see happening on the ground does not fit with an actual order to âuse all force to disrupt these elections,â â she said. âIt rather looks like a propaganda effort, in which you keep up the pressure through psychological intimidation and irregular attacks.âVan Bijlert noted that it is difficult to determine the extent to which the Taliban is directing these assaults. âWe donât know to what extent a group like the Taliban can fully control everything that happens. At some point, when you give instructions for violence, and when you provide the means for violence, you also lose some of the control over how itâs used.âThe Afghan government, for its part, has repeatedly claimed that it is capable of safeguarding the election â but the recent spate of attacks has raised more than a few doubts about this.âIt doesnât seem clear that they can provide the kind of security thatâs going to be necessary,â Gossman said. âItâs in the days before the election that we really see this kind of pattern of intimidation and threats, and how thatâs going to affect the way that people feel about actually going out to vote.âFollow Alice Speri on Twitter: @alicesperi
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