Taliban threaten election day mayhem as campaign ends

Pakistan readies ballot boxes for tomorrow's polls. Photo:AFP

The Taliban have sent suicide bombers to mount election-day attacks on Pakistan's historic polls, a militant commander said yesterday, following a bloody campaign which has claimed more than 100 lives.
Tomorrow's vote will be a democratic milestone in a country ruled for half its history by the military but the Pakistani Taliban have condemned it as un-Islamic.
They have directly threatened the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and its main partners in the outgoing government, seriously restricting their ability to campaign, and staged a series of attacks during the campaign.
The insurgents' leader Hakimullah Mehsud had personally ordered suicide bombings on polling day, said a Taliban commander in the northwest.
"The Taliban has dispatched several of fedayeen (suicide bombers) to carry attacks on election across Pakistan," he told AFP on condition of anonymity.
AFP saw a copy of a letter apparently sent from Mehsud to Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan, mapping out the plan for bombings.
"You take care of attacks in Punjab and Sindh. I will take care of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan," it said in reference to Pakistan's four provinces.
Attacks on politicians and political parties, most of them claimed by the Taliban, have already killed 113 people since mid-April, according to an AFP tally.
Pakistan has said it will deploy more than 600,000 security personnel on polling day.
A separate pamphlet distributed by a previously unknown group in the most notorious Taliban and al-Qaeda-stronghold of North Waziristan has warned people of punishment if they allow women to vote.
The Taliban threats have cowed the PPP, which has run a leaderless campaign. Its chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari -- too young to stand -- has not been seen in public.
In his absence former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and cricket legend Imran Khan have stolen the limelight. They were competing to try to draw massive crowds at final rallies yesterday the last day of campaigning.
Sharif is a billionaire steel tycoon seeking a historic third term as prime minister.
The charismatic Khan is a sporting hero who has also sought to capitalise on a sympathy vote after fracturing vertebrae in a fall at a rally on Tuesday, and will address supporters from his hospital bed.
The election will mark the first time a civilian government has served a full term in the country and handed over to another through the ballot box. The outcome is considered wide open.
While Sharif is considered most likely to win, some believe the PPP can still emerge the second largest party thanks to a rural vote bank.
Despite his electrifying campaign, a question mark hangs over how well Khan will do, considering he won only one seat in 2002.
Campaigning ends officially at midnight, before the Muslim holy day Friday.