On Monday, 24th March, the Independent Election Commission (IEC) said that lack of security might undermine voting in the regions of the country, urging supervision to ensure credibility and legitimacy of votes during upcoming elections. The IEC Chief Secretary Zai-ul-Haq Amarkhail said that religious scholars and tribal elders could play crucial role in persuading people to vote and prevent riggings. He emphasized that if security level was not raised at the polling stations in unsecure regions then the IEC wouldn’t be able to conduct elections.

Only a day after expression of his concern its office came under a complex attack at the barricaded region of Kabul city. Reportedly, five terrorists could manage to enter the office and took its employees as hostages. And from inside the building they started fire exchange with Afghan and foreign security forces. The heavy fire and roaring sounds of explosions made people at the vicinity frightened. The sound of explosion was audible from far away amidst roaring sounds of traffics. The IEC regional office is located in Darul-Aman area where lower house of the parliament, house of the Ashraff Ghani Ahmadzai, a leading presidential election runner, are located. Additionally, President Karzai was also in the parliament for introduction of Younus Qanuni as his first vice president.

Based on the official statements, two police were killed and two soldiers injured but there is no confirmation about civilian casualty. Certainly terrorists do not care about civilians’ lives. Taliban have vowed to disrupt the coming elections. Based on reports, Taliban will kill anyone who has taken card to participate in elections. Considering this issues, it is highly possible that attackers on IEC office would not have avoided shooting any single individual who were inside the office. They might have killed employees who might not have managed to hide in safe room(s).

Anyhow, the series and consecutive attacks at the heart of Kabul city that also in barricaded regions show that there is a lot to be done with Afghan security forces. The rhetoric of Mr. President and other politicians that nothing will go wrong after foreign military pullout is a mere bogus. If our politicians, including President Karzai want to ensure that the country does not relapse to pre-2001 situation then the relation should be tightened with our strategic allies.