Blast at election centre in Afghanistan kills dozens

The death toll in an Islamic State suicide bombing at a national ID distribution centre in Kabul has climbed to at least 31, a health official said.

At least 54 others injured in the incident have been transported to hospitals across town, Afghan Public Health Ministry spokesman Wahidullah Majroh said.

Majroh had earlier said that 57 people were injured in the blast. 

The on-foot suicide bomber set off his explosive vest outside the ID distribution centre in a Shiite-dominated, western neighbourhood of Kabul, Interior Ministry spokesman Najib 
Danish said.

Emergency, an Italian NGO operating a hospital for war victims in Kabul, said at least 42 people injured in the bombing had been admitted to its trauma centre. 

The centre targeted in the attack was set up to provide national IDs to voters ahead of parliamentary and provincial council elections slated for October.

Such centres have been set up by the Afghan government in hopes of increasing turnout - those without ID cannot receive a voter registration card.

The Islamic State terrorist organization claimed responsibility for the attack through its mouthpiece, the Amaq news agency. 

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah were among those to condemn the attack. 

Security is one of the main concerns for voter registration and elections as a resilient insurgency shackles Afghan forces to the battlefield throughout the country.

More than 40 per cent of polling stations for Afghan parliamentary elections could be subject to security risks affecting voter participation, an election monitor said late last month.

Mohammad Yousuf Rashed, executive director of the Free and Fair Election Forum of Afghanistan (FEFA), told dpa that out of around 7,400 polling stations due to be set up for the vote, 948 are in areas “out of government control” - meaning under Taliban control.
DPA, 22nd 
APRIL, 2018