KABUL: Unknown persons have killed nine persons including a candidate for a provincial council seat in Sar-i-Pul, Governor Abdul Jabar Haqbeen said on Wednesday.
No group has claimed responsibility for the incident.
On Sunday night, the candidate Hussain Nazari was kidnapped along with seven others persons while they were travelling in a taxi to the capital of the country’s northern Sar-i-Pul province.
The governor said that authorities received intelligence that Nazari was slain by his abductors.
The incident occurred a few days before the war-torn country will hold its third presidential and provincial council elections since the fall of the Taliban.
The Afghan Taliban have vowed a campaign of violence to disrupt the polls scheduled for April 5, urging their fighters to attack polling staff, voters and security forces in the run-up to election day.