At least one person was killed and eight others injured in a bomb blast in a Shiite cultural centre in Afghanistan’s northern Balkh province on Saturday, VOA News reported.
Speaking to VOA, a local police spokesman, Mohammad Asif Waziri said that the blast had targeted a ceremony honouring the Afghan media in the provincial capital, Mazar-i-Sharif. Waziri said that five journalists and three children were among those injured. Provincial officials and religious clerics were among the guests at the event.
Taliban-led Interior Ministry spokesperson Abdul Nafi Takor said a planted explosive device caused the blast. TOLO News reported that one of its journalists was among the victims. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, as per the news report.
The blast has been reported two days after a Taliban-appointed governor in northern Afghanistan’s Balkh has been killed in the blast that took place in his office, as per the news report. Balkh’s Security Department’s appointed spokesman, Mohammad Asif Waziri confirmed that Mohammad Dawood Muzamil, the Taliban-appointed Governor, was killed in that explosion, as per the TOLO News report.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid on Twitter expressed sorrow over the killing of the provincial governor. A statement from the department of security of Balkh said that a person wearing a suicide vest blew himself up on the second floor near the office of the provincial governor, according to TOLO News. The witnesses said the blast occurred inside the provincial governor’s office.
The governor is one of the most senior officials to have been killed since the Taliban retook control of the country in August 2021 following the withdrawal of US forces. As per the VOA News report, Islamic State terror group’s Afghan branch, known as Islamic State-Khorasan took responsibility for Thursday’s bombing and vowed to carry out more attacks against Taliban officials. (ANI)
