By Abbas Ali

Last Saturday's suicide attack at the entrance of NATO Headquarters in Kabul, leaving seven people dead and 90 others injured, occurred just two days after a high-tech surveillance balloon was launched over Kabul to keep a vigil eye for any untoward incident in the wake of the Afghan presidential and provincial council elections to be held Thursday.

General Tremely, spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force last week said "all our efforts have been made for a peaceful conduction of elections in Afghanistan."

While speaking in a joint press conference with Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman General Azimi, the ISAF official said for peaceful elections, a security plan with new technology has been chalked out which will detect any security threat in Kabul.

"New detection system has been launched over Kabul city and by a security balloon, and Kabul is under a vigil look round the clock," said General Tremely.

He added the new system has been used in Iraq and soon it will be launched in other provinces of Afghanistan too.

Just two days after the high-tech security balloon was launched over Kabul by ISAF, a suicide bomber got to the main gate of NATO Headquarters beside the US Embassy and Afghan Presidential Palace in high security zone in Kabul.

The surveillance balloon is equipped with cameras. Other than this, over 46 censor cameras have already been installed in Kabul.

Despite all these, a suicide bomber taking explosive-loaded vehicle got to the most secure zone of Kabul city. The security cameras of the Embassy, Palace and the Headquarters could not stop the bomber from reaching the main gate.

There are several security check posts in the area. The attack, just five days before polling in the insurgency-hit Afghanistan, is not only a serious threat message for security, but it also exposes the weaknesses.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack that killed seven people and injured 90 others, all Afghan civilians. The injured include some soldiers from International Security Assistance Force.

Militants have already warned of disrupting the electoral process as they have asked Afghans to stay away from polling stations.

The blast in front of the main gate of NATO Headquarters in Kabul is a message from Taliban just days before elections, to be safeguarded by Afghan and international forces.

Militants want to show that they can reach anywhere and everywhere, and anytime and every time.

Such attacks also have effects on the public thinking several times about such a blast before going to a polling station.

Contrary to this, analysts, like Mr. Daiyar, say "attacking such important places is symbolic to show the exaggerated presence of insurgents anywhere and everywhere."

He said, "Insurgents have no mass support. They only rely on a very small but positional number of fighters that include suicide bombers."

"The blast is aimed at warning Afghans before elections, but we are habitual of such attacks. Life with such attacks is normal for ordinary Afghans. There may be a single or two incidents of small scale, but it won't affect the entire process," the analyst said.

(Xinhua News Agency August 18, 2009)