KABUL (BNO NEWS) – The bodies of five campaign volunteers for a female candidate on Saturday were found dead in western Afghanistan amid violence surrounding the upcoming elections in the war-torn country, the Guardian reported.

The volunteers, men aged between 20 and 35, were found dead by local villagers in western Afghanistan. They were kidnapped by gunman sometime on Thursday while out campaigning for Fauzia Giliani, who is one of a number of women campaigning to be a member of parliament.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for kidnapping ten of her workers as they were working in a remote countryside. Five of the workers were released before the others were found dead. The insurgents haven’t claimed responsibility for the murders but Gilani said that she believed the “enemies of Afghanistan” were responsible.

“These people were just my volunteers,” the candidate said. “They were just trying to help – I wasn’t paying them any money.”

She said that she didn’t know whether they were targeted because she’s a woman, but she noted that in western Afghanistan “society is controlled by men.” She said that then men are in charge and don’t want a women in a position of authority above them.

The campaign has been ridden with attacks and scare tactics against women contesting seats across the nation. According to a survey in the Logar province, nine out of ten threats against specific candidates were directed at women. In other provinces, women have been targeted with threatening phone calls, often made late at night by insurgents and political opponents.

The UN mission in Afghanistan said that the killings of a candidate on Saturday and the volunteers today were “unacceptable,” and that those responsible would be brought to justice. “These killings constitute violent intimidation of all electoral candidates and their supporters.” Furthermore, they called on Afghan security to be on heightened alert in the weeks leading to the elections.

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