Taliban threaten to chop off fingers of voters

Telegraph:

Insurgents in southern Afghanistan told locals that fingers found bearing the indelible ink used to mark voters would be removed.

"We will know those who cast a vote from the ink, and his finger will be cut off," a commander warned villagers in the south of the country, the New York Times reported.

The Taliban ruling council led by Mullah Omar has called on Afghans to boycott the election, described them as an American sham and told its fighters to block roads to polling stations.

The new threat of mutilation appeared to rule out hopes that lower level Taliban leaders would call a temporary ceasefire to allow the vote to proceed without violence.

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No kidding. I never thought they were serious about a truce anyway. There is an opportunity here for US and Afghan forces to protect voters and destroy Taliban units that threaten them. The Taliban will have to move quickly to make good on their threat. Because of that they will be vulnerable to US forces in the area.