Blast kills 2 lecturers at Kabul University
KABUL: An explosion in the Afghan capital on Thursday killed two lecturers at the Kabul University, ater a bomb atached to the car they were travelling in went off, a police spokesman said.
The atack took place around noon near the university, said Kabul police spokesman Ferdaws Faramarz. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing but government officials say Taliban insurgents are to be blame and use such tactics to instill fear while avoiding large-scale civilian casualties.
The two lecturers, Mubasher Muslimyar and Marouf Rasikh, taught at the university’s Islamic studies faculty, according to an Afghan official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to talk to the media.
Two years ago, Muslimyar had been briefly arrested by the Afghan intelligence agency over allegations of promoting militant propaganda by the Daesh group among university students. No charges were raised and he was later released.
Kabul police said an investigation team had arrived at the scene of the explosion.
This was the second explosion on Thursday in Kabul.
An earlier one had targeted police in the District 10 area of Kabul but caused no casualties.
Afghanistan has seen a nationwide spike in bombings, targeted killings, and violence on the batlefield as peace negotiations in Qatar between the Taliban and the Afghan government have stalled.
Kabul has seen a series of atacks with small magnetic bombs atached under vehicles and other targeted killings against members of security forces, judges, government officials, civil society activists and journalists in recent weeks.
The Daesh group’s local affiliate has claimed responsibility for some of the atacks, but many go unclaimed, with the government puting the blame on the Taliban. The insurgents have denied responsibility for most of the atacks.
The government announced last week that they had arrested a militant group behind making and deploying sticky bombs, but such atacks do continue to occur.
Violence in parts of the country has increased recently as peace talks between the government and Taliban insurgents have largely stalled while US President Joe Biden’s administration reviews how to handle the peace process, including a troop withdrawal. Afghan military officials said both local security forces and the Taliban are preparing for fresh fighting in the spring.