KABUL (AFP) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai's running mate survived an assassination attempt when a bomb killed two people in a convoy carrying him to an election rally, a government official said.
Karzai's candidate for first vice president, Ahmad Zia Massoud, was not injured in the attack in Faizabad, the capital of Badakhshan province, interior ministry spokesman Lutfullah Mashal told AFP.
A remote-controlled mine hit the second car in the convoy just after Massoud's vehicle passed by, he said, killing two and injuring two, including the deputy provincial governor.
"The mine, a remote-controlled one, exploded on a road where Ahmad Zia Massoud was passing by as a crowd of people were cheering," Mashal told AFP.
"His vehicle passed by and the mine hit the second vehicle in the convoy," he said.
Mashal said some reports from the province stated only one person, a Karzai campaign worker, was killed. Earlier reports said the bomb had exploded at the rally.
"The investigation is going on. It is the work of the enemies of peace and the elements who want to derail the election process," Mashal said.
Ahmad Zia Massoud is the brother of Ahmad Shah Massoud, the assassinated hero of the fight against the Soviet occupation in the 1980s and of the later struggle against the hardline Islamic Taliban regime.
Separately, a campaign official for the only woman candidate, Masooda Jalal was injured when a mine exploded on a road in Jirm district in the same province of Badakhshan, Mashal said.
Her husband was in the vehicle which was hit by the mine but was not injured, Mashal said. He was unsure whether the candidate was in the vehicle.
The bomb blasts are the latest in a series of attacks in the run-up to Afghanistan's first presidential election this Saturday.
Hundreds of people have died this year in an insurgency by remnants of the Taliban regime, ousted by the US-led invasion in late 2001.
Officials have warned of a possible sharp rise in attacks on election day when up to 10.5 million registered voters go to the polls, with major cities at risk of car-bomb blasts and polling stations under threat of armed assault.
Nearly 60,000 Afghan police and soldiers backed by 27,000 international troops will be in position to protect the 5,000 polling stations throughout the rugged landscape.