Kabul, Oct. 6 (Reuters): Afghan President Hamid Karzai's running mate for a historic presidential election narrowly escaped a bomb set off by Taliban guerrillas as the campaign closed today.

But, just hours later, the President appealed to the militants to rejoin the mainstream.

Vice-presidential candidate Ahmad Zia Masood, the brother of assassinated resistance hero Ahmad Shah Masood, was attacked in Faizabad, the capital of mountainous Badakhshan province in the remote northeast, where he had gone for a campaign rally.

Explosives planted in the road went off as the convoy in which he was travelling headed from the airport to the rally site, killing two people and injuring at least three others, local officials said.

Taliban official Mullah Dadullah claimed responsibility for the attack.?It was a remote-controlled bomb planted on a road side. But Masood's car missed it because it went off late,? he said in a telephone call. Badakhshan is far from the Taliban's southern stronghold. Although the attack appeared to demonstrate a far-flung capability of the guerrillas there have been relatively few attacks outside the south.