TALOQAN (Pajhwok): Presidential runner Dr Abdullah Abdullah on Tuesday criticised President Hamid Karzai’s stance on Russia's annexation of Crimea as a flawed foreign policy goal.
At a meeting with a bipartisan US parliamentary delegation in Kabul over the weekend, President Karzai said Afghanistan "respects the free will of the people of Crimea to decide about their own future."
Addressing thousands of people at an election campaign rally in Taloqan, the capital of northern Takhar province, he said President Karzai should focus on the country’s security situation instead of commenting on Crimea.
Abdullah’s first vice-presidential candidate, Mohammad Khan, told the gathering the people of Takhar had always backed the Mujahidin. He asked the participants to support their team in serving the Afghans.
His choice for second vice-president Mohammad Mohaqiq said the masses should monitor voting at polling stations to prevent fraud.
High Peace Council (HPC) deputy head for Takhar, Basira Sultani, also attended in the gathering. She said the women of Takhar supported Abdullah as their next president.
She asked Abdullah to give women positions in the government if he won the presidential race.
There was another political gathering supporting Abdullah in southeastern Paktia province.
A member of Abdullah’s campaign team told the meeting that people should vote for a candidate grown up in Afghanistan, not a person returning from the West.
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