KARZAI ESCAPES UNHURT IN ATTACK ON POLITICAL GATHERING IN KABUL
CEREMONY TARGETED Series of explosions leave several dead, scores injured
KABUL: Several explosions struck on Thursday outside a ceremony in Kabul attended by Afghanistan’s chief executive Abdullah Abdullah and former president Hamid Karzai , both of whom were unharmed, officials said.
There was conflicting information as to the casualty figures in the immediate aftermath of the blasts. Health ministry official Mohaibullah Zaeer said an initial check of Kabul’s hospitals revealed three people have been killed and 32 wounded in the attack but he said the figures were not final. Another official, who was at the ceremony, said seven people were killed and at least 10 wounded. He spoke on condition of anonymity to talk to reporters. The different accounts on the casualties could not immediately be reconciled.
There was no claim of responsibility for the blasts.
Nusrat Rahimi, deputy spokesman for the interior ministry, said the blasts were due to mortar shells being fired and one person has been arrested. Rahimi declined to answer questions on casualties.
The ceremony was commemorating the 1995 death of prominent minority Hazara leader Abdul Ali Mazari, who was killed by the Taliban.
Afghanistan’s chief executive Abdullah Abdullah and former president Hamid Karzai attended the gathering.
There were hundreds of people at the ceremony, said Azizullah Amini, who was in the audience at the commemoration, held at a huge hall on the western edge of Kabul, in the Dasht-e-Barchi neighbourhood.
Amini told AP he heard at least four explosions and that the hall shook as if something was slamming into the ground outside the building. The ceremony quickly ended as people were rattled by the blasts.
Both the Taliban and the Islamic State (IS) group stage near-daily attacks across Afghanistan, including in the capital of Kabul.
The IS affiliate has in the past often targeted the ethnic Hazaras, a mainly Shia minority in Sunni majority Afghanistan. IS has declared war on Shias, considering them heretics and attacking their mosques and educational institutions.
The militant group has often struck in the Dasht-e-Barchi neighbourhood, where Hazaras dominate. The Taliban, by contrast, have distanced themselves from attacks on Shiites in Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, IS claimed responsibility for an attack on Wednesday on a construction company in eastern Nangarhar province that killed at least 17 people.