Afghanistan Taliban slice off voters inked fingers

Insurgents cut the fingers off nearly a dozen voters and killed 11 other people, including four election workers, to punish them for voting in this weekend’s presidential runoff, officials said on Sunday.

The Taliban had ordered voters not to participate in the contest.

 The Taliban had warned people not to participate in Saturday’s vote. The two candidates, former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah and former Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, have both vowed to improve ties with the West and sign a long-delayed security pact allowing nearly 10,000 US troops to remain in the country for two more years.

Taliban militants, who had threatened to disrupt the vote, launched low-level attacks in which at least 46 people were killed across the country.

 “Like millions of their countrymen and women, these ordinary Afghans were exercising their fundamental right to determine the future path of their country through voting and not through violence and intimidation. By their vote, they already defeated those who promote terror and violence,” said Jan Kubis, the UN special representative.

Men show their fingers after the ink-stained part of their fingers were cut off by the Taliban after they took part in the presidential election.

 In a particular incident, the Taliban cut off the index fingers of 11 civilians on Saturday in western Herat province to punish them for voting, police spokesman Raoud Ahamdi said.

The insurgents cut off inked fingers of 11 voters in Herat.

Taliban threatened they would cut off the ink stained fingers of anyone who voted,they did.