19 killed in A’stan blast

A suicide bomber targeted a convoy of Sikhs and Hindus on their way to meet Afghanistan’s president in the eastern city of Jalalabad on Sunday, killing at least 19 people.

Inamullah Miakhail, spokesman for the provincial hospital in Nangarhar, said that 17 out of the dead were from the minority Sikh and Hindu community.

Miakhail added that at least 10 of the 20 wounded are from the same minority community and are undergoing treatment at a Jalalabad hospital.

Miakhail confirmed that Avtar Singh Khalsa, a longtime leader of the Sikh community who had planned to run in the parliamentary elections set for October, was killed in the attack.

Attahullah Khogyani, spokesman for the provincial governor, said that a number of shops and vehicles caught fire as result of the attack.

Gen. Ghulam Sanayee Stanekzai, police chief of Nangarhar province, of which Jalalabad is the capital, said that the attacker targeted the group on its way to the governor’s compound. They had planned to meet with President Ashraf Ghani, who was visiting the region on Sunday.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but the Taliban and an ISIS affiliate are active in the province.

Sikhs and Hindus have long suffered discrimination in the conservative Muslim country and have been targeted by Islamic extremists.