UN voices ‘revulsion’ over latest suicide attack in Afghanistan

UNITED NATIONS, April 22 (APP):The United Nations mission in Afghanistan, UNAMA, has condemned a suicide attack on a voter-registration centre in Kabul which left at least 30 dead on Sunday.
“The UN family in Afghanistan feels a deep sense of revulsion at today’s outrage,” the head of the mission, Tadamichi Yamamoto said, adding that “the killing appears to be part of a wholly unacceptable effort by extremists to deter Afghan citizens from carrying out their constitutional right to take part in elections.”
Sunday’s attack took place when a suicide bomber wearing an explosive belt, blew himself up near the election facility in the west of Kabu, an area mostly populated by Shia Muslims, according to UNAMA.
Special Representative Yamamoto expressed his deep condolences to the family and victims, and wished the injured a speedy recovery.
News reports said that the ISIL/Da’esh extremist group had claimed responsibility for the bombing, and many women and children are believed to be among the victims.
Voter-registration began last week for parliamentary and district elections scheduled to take place on 20th October.
UNAMA said that since then, “there have been a number of violent incidents around the country against the centres where citizens are required to sign up for the upcoming ballot.”
Two police officers were shot and killed by armed assailants at a registration place in the city of Jalalabad on Thursday, and gunmen also torched a centre in Ghor; abducting electoral and security officials.
They were released the following day.