Bomb attack on Karzai's running mate, scene and reax

Описание: (6 Oct 2004) SHOTLIST
++VIDEO QUALITY AS INCOMING++
Faizabad
1. Wide of rural road with convoy of cars carrying Ahmed Zia Massood, Afghan President Hamid Karzai's running mate in presidential election
2. Various of Massood (in long brown coat) campaigning for Karzai, surrounded by security and locals
3. Various of Massood walking away, surrounded by group
4. Crowd of local residents, with one person holding a Karzai campaign poster
5. Police trucks stopped on crowded road, surrounded by residents
6. Convoy stopped after explosion with dust in the air, tracking shot to damaged truck

Kabul
7. Karzai sitting down at press conference
8. SOUNDBITE: (English) Hamid Karzai, Afghan President:
"The attack today, or the bomb blast today, on the way of Ahmed Zia Massood was a dastardly thing. Who did it was wrong, and we are looking at it. We, as a matter of fact, maybe taking some action in the coming two days."
9. Karzai seated at press conference in front of reporters

STORYLINE:

Attackers set off a bomb as a convoy carrying Afghan President Hamid Karzai's vice presidential running mate and other dignitaries passed along a road in northeastern Afghanistan on Wednesday.

Officials said one man was killed and another five were injured.

Karzai said that the attack on vice presidential hopeful, Ahmed Zia Massood, was a "dastardly thing", and his government may take action in the investigation in the next two days.

A presidential spokesman said Massood escaped unharmed but the former governor of Badakhshan, where the attack occurred, was among those injured.

The spokesman, Khaleeq Ahmed, said the politician, Said Ikramuddin Masumi, would recover.

Masumi was governor of Badakhsan until he stepped down recently to work on Karzai's campaign.

Ahmed said the convoy was apparently attacked by a roadside bomb or land mine set off by remote control as it passed along a road in Faizabad, the provincial capital, but he would not comment on who might be behind the attack

The area where Massood's convoy was attacked is not considered a haven for Taliban rebels and had been relatively peaceful in the past.

It is, however, a centre of Afghanistan's booming opium and heroin trade, with countless poppy fields dotting the landscape.

Ahmed Zia Massood is the brother of slain Northern Alliance commander Ahmed Shah Massood.

Karzai selected him as a running mate over current Vice President and Defence Minister Mohammed Fahim, a Tajik faction leader.

Karzai is the overwhelming favourite to win the vote on Saturday in Afghanistan's landmark presidential election, and he hopes the victory will add teeth to his often limited control of the vast, barren country.

The attack in the northeast was at least the third on Karzai and his political allies since campaigning began on September. 7.

Karzai survived a rocket attack on his helicopter on September 16 as he was on his way to a campaign stop in the southeastern city of Gardez.

Four days later, a roadside bomb in northern Afghanistan hit a convoy carrying Nayiamatullah Shahrani, one of four of Karzai's current vice presidents. Police said a bodyguard was injured in that attack.

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