The unusually specific threat, in an English-language message from spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, said participants will be pursued “all over the country and will face severe repercussions.”
It called on Taleban supporters “to target every security guard, person with intention, participant and every caller of this convention.”
The four-day gathering, known in Afghanistan as a ‘Loya Jirga,’ will be held in the capital Kabul in late November, where it will bring together more than 2,000 politicians, tribal elders, community leaders, businessmen and civil society representatives from across the country. The assembly will be a consultative process, and its decisions are not legally binding on the government.
Earlier this month, Taleban vowed to fight until all foreign forces have left Afghanistan.
President Hamid Karzai and his Western backers have agreed that all foreign combat troops would return home by the end of 2014, but the West has promised continued support beyond then in the form of funds and training for Afghan security forces.
Despite the presence of tens of thousands of Western soldiers in Afghanistan, the United Nations and other groups say violence is at its worst since US-led Afghan forces toppled the Taleban from power in late 2001. NATO-led forces say they have seen a decline over recent months in attacks launched by insurgents against their troops.
Safia Sediqi, a spokeswoman for the grand assembly, said she was unaware of the threat.
“I have not read the statement yet and it’s early to comment about it,” she said.
Seventeen areas in Afghanistan have been slated for the next phase of the security handover from foreign troops to Afghan forces, which President Hamid Karzai is expected to announce next week, an Afghan official said.
Under a plan agreed by NATO-led forces and Karzai, all foreign combat troops will leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014, with the rapidly-expanding Afghan police and army assuming full security responsibility in their place.
The shortlist covers 17 areas, seven of which are provinces — mostly in the relatively peaceful north — that could be handed over in their entirety, while districts within the others will pass into Afghan police and army control.
Parts of some provinces on the list, like southern Helmand, have already been handed over to Afghan control.
Takhar, Sar-e-Pul, Samangan, Parwan, and Balkh provinces in the north, Daikondi in central Afghanistan, and Nimroz in the west could be fully handed over, according to a list seen by Reuters.
"It is expected that President Karzai will announce the potential areas and provinces during a regional conference in Istanbul on November 2," said Abdul Khaliq Farahi, head of the Independent Directorate of Local Governance.
