Blasts rock funeral of Afghan bomb victim
President says nation ‘under enemy attack’
KABUL: Three explosions on Saturday rocked the funeral service of a victim of anti-government protests in Kabul, killing at least seven people and injuring dozens after a tense and bloody week in the Afghan capital.
The blasts followed a truck explosion on Wednesday that killed nearly 100 people and wounded almost 500 near the presidential palace and foreign embassies.
The number of casualties on Saturday was not immediately clear, but Wahidullah Majroh, a spokesman for the Health Ministry, said seven bodies had been recovered and 119 people had been taken to hospitals with injuries.
Local news media reported that at least 12 people had been killed, and the Emergency Hospital, one of Kabul’s main trauma centres, put the number of dead at 19.
Among them was a former deputy attorney-general, Halim Samadi, and a well-known northern preacher, Mawlawi Jalal. The speaker of the Afghan Senate, Fazl Hadi Muslimyar, and several senior members of Jamiat-e-Islami, one of the country’s prominent political parties, were among the wounded.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bombings. The Taliban denied any involvement, a spokesman said. But Salahuddin Rabbani, the foreign minister, who was attending the funeral service but was not injured, said: “Barbaric terrorists have turned a funeral into a slaughterhouse.”
In addition to Rabbani, Abdullah Abdullah, the government’s chief executive and President Ashraf Ghani’s coalition partner, was among other senior government officials at the funeral prayer. Abdullah was not injured.
Mr Abdullah, appearing in a news conference after the blasts, said security measures at the funeral as well as the failures of the previous few days would be investigated.
“We do understand the pain of those mothers and children who lost their loved ones,” he said. “We cannot bring back their loved ones to them. We also understand the overwhelming challenge of security in this country, and the terrorist groups which are active inside the country, the support that they receive.”
Mr Ghani, in a brief statement, condemned the explosions and pleaded for unity, saying: “The country is under enemy attack.”
More than a thousand people had gathered for the final prayer for Salem Izidyar, the son of the deputy speaker of the Senate, who was killed Friday during protests in Kabul calling for the resignation of the government for what many said was its failure to stop the truck bombing Wednesday. Security forces had opened fire to disperse the crowd.
At Izidyar’s funeral on Saturday, a grave had been dug farther up a hill, and banners with pictures of him in his graduation gown dotted the cemetery.
Then, three back-to-back explosions shattered the air, and a scene of mournful quiet changed into in chaos as people started shouting, screaming and fleeing the scene. Bodies piled up on one another.
Izidyar’s body was rushed by a couple of dozen people to his grave, to get it away from the crowd. Ambulances soon arrived to take the wounded and the newly dead away.
The explosions came a day after the commander of Kabul Garrison, Gen Gul Nabi Ahmadzai, asked protesters not to hold public gatherings because of a high threat level from groups planning “to target our people’s gatherings and protests with suicide bombings, explosions and assaults”.
The calls for the resignations of security officials grew louder after the latest blasts, with many Afghans accusing Gen Ahmadzai’s command of failing to take proper measures despite having information about looming threats.
But Mr Ghani said resignations would not solve the problem. “If that would have been the solution for the challenges of our country, that the country is faced with, I am sure — at least I am talking about myself — I would be ready to resign, if that would have helped.”
For a second time in two days, the United Nations mission in Afghanistan issued a statement urging unity, reflecting the deep fears among Western diplomats that the recent crisis could widen Afghanistan’s ethnic rifts.
“I urge everyone not to respond to violence with more violence,” said Tadamichi Yamamoto, the UN secretary-general’s special representative for Afghanistan. “The attack today, conducted by those opportunistically seeking to use these very fragile moments to destabilize Afghanistan, follows so much violence this week across the country — in Khost, in Kabul and in other provinces. In the context of so much suffering, now is the time to seek unity and solidarity.”
In Kabul, emergency workers and the medical staff at the city’s trauma centers were stretched thin and exhausted after a week of nonstop violence. The Emergency Hospital, which has treated about 1,350 patients with war-related wounds in its Kabul operation so far this year, has expressed concern for the safety of its staff. The site where bloody clashes broke out during Friday’s protest is close to the hospital, and so is the protest tent that is pitched in the nearby roundabout.
“To continue our work, we are asking only one thing: security around our hospital and not to be targeted intentionally,” the hospital’s leadership wrote in a letter to foreign embassies and international missions in Kabul on Saturday. “Until now it seemed that all the actors in the conflict were respecting the sign of the hospital, but not anymore. With the unfortunate event that happened in Kabul and the ongoing protests, our hospital has been put on the front line.”