 A second senior former member of the ousted Taleban regime said yesterday he had enrolled as a candidate in Afghan legislative elections, while the country's president urged more women to take part in the elections. Mulla Mohammed Khaksar, the former Taleban deputy interior minister, said he would run as an independent candidate in the September elections. Khaksar secretly contacted the United States in 1999 to seek American help in stopping the Taleban, and renounced the religious movement after its collapse in 2001. "I want to again serve my people," he told reporters in the southern city of Kandahar. "I want to support the government and have good relations with the international community," he said. "I want there to be no more violence in our country." When asked what he now thinks of the Taleban, he said the former regime had "positive and negative points." He did not elaborate. |