Taliban kill 16 Afghans for carrying voter cards

Taliban guerrillas kidnapped and killed 16 people in an Afghan province after finding them with voter registration cards for the country’s September polls, officials said today. The killings in Zabul province were the most serious attack yet on the elections, which the Taliban and allied Islamic militants have vowed to disrupt.

News of the violence came a day after a bomb killed two women working for the UN-Afghan electoral body and wounded nine women poll workers and two children in Jalalabad. Haji Obaidullah, chief of Khas Uruzgan district, said the guerrillas stopped a bus carrying 17 civilians on Friday. They took the passengers to Dai Chopan district of Zabul province and killed all but one when they found they were carrying voter registration cards, he quoted the lone survivor as saying. ‘‘They were apparently killed because they were carrying registration cards,’’ he said.

A spokesman for the UN said he had no information about the incident. Uruzgan police Chief Roozi Khan said US and Afghan soldiers were searching for the bodies and the attackers. ‘‘We have been told the group involved in this incident has hidden in Deh Rawud district of Uruzgan,’’ he said.

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A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for killing the women in Jalalabad on Saturday. He said the guerrillas had warned Afghans not to become involved in elections that would only strengthen the US-backed government. Taliban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi said the Taliban had killed 19 people kidnapped in Uruzgan on Friday but none of them were civilians.

‘‘Six of them belonged to the Elections Commission and 13 were government soldiers,’’ he said. — (Reuters)