Karzai's deputy escapes bomb

Afghan President Hamid Karzai's running mate for a historic presidential election narrowly escaped a bomb set off by Taliban guerillas as the campaign closed yesterday.

But, just hours later, the president appealed to the militants to rejoin the mainstream.

"Thousands and thousands and thousands of the Taliban, they are the sons of the soil, they have every right as citizens as every other Afghan has," Mr Karzai told a news conference. He said he was against only about 100 or so hardcore militants "who had committed atrocities".

Two of the 18 candidates for Saturday's poll said they were withdrawing in favour of Mr Karzai. One was not considered to be very popular but the other, Sayed Ishaq Gailani, is from one of the country's best-known families.

Mr Karzai has always been favourite to win, but Mr Gailani's move could help him get the required 51 per cent of the vote he needs to avoid a November run-off.

Vice-presidential candidate Ahmad Zia Masood, the brother of assassinated resistance hero Ahmad Shah Masood, was attacked in Faizabad, the capital of mountainous Badakhshan province in the remote northeast, where he had gone for a campaign rally.

Explosives planted in the road went off as the convoy in which he was travelling headed from the airport to the rally site, killing two people and injuring at least three others, local officials said.

Taliban official Mullah Dadullah claimed responsibility for the attack. "It was a remote-controlled bomb planted on a road side. But (Mr) Masood's car missed it because it went off late," he told Reuters in a telephone call.

Badakhshan is far from the Taliban's southern stronghold. Although the attack appeared to demonstrate a far-flung capability of the guerillas, who have vowed to derail the poll, there have been relatively few attacks outside the south.

And hope is growing that the election will pass off smoothly and perhaps mark a turning point for the impoverished nation which has suffered a quarter century of war.

"Afghans are convinced that a popularly elected, representative president is urgently needed in order to bring an end to the violence, whether by factions or extremists, to achieve reform, disarmament, justice and the rule of law," said Jean Arnault, the special UN representative for Afghanistan.

"We share their conviction. And we think they will succeed," he told reporters.

The election bust into life yesterday, with Uzbek candidate Abdul Rashid Dostum clambering onto a bay stallion at a Kabul rally to display his martial qualities, and supporters of Mr Karzai distributing baseball caps emblazoned with his image.

All this is very new to Afghanistan, which has been torn by conflict since the 1979 Soviet invasion and has not held any form of election since the late 1960s. It will be the first time ever that Afghans will directly elect their own leader.

At his meeting, Mr Karzai urged Afghans to follow the example of their warrior ancestors and become heroes - but of the ballot box, not the battlefield.

"You have shown yourselves to be heroes versus the Soviet Union and terrorists," he said. "Now show yourselves to be heroes of the vote."