Suicide attack kills 32 in Afghanistan
Chaotic scenes at hospitals as medical staff struggle to treat 128 injured people
Asuicide attack on protesters in eastern Afghanistan yesterday killed at least 32 people, officials said, as an uptick in violence across the war-torn country dampens hopes for peace talks and elections.
There were chaotic scenes at several hospitals as medical staff struggled to treat 128 people wounded by the powerful blast in Nangarhar province.
Gul Majid was among scores of protesters blocking the highway between the provincial capital of Jalalabad and a major Pakistan border crossing when he “heard a big bomb”.
“Then I saw flesh, blood and people wounded all around me,” Majid told journalists outside one of the hospitals. “I am still looking for my friends. whether they dead.”
The men had been protesting over the appointment of a local police chief, provincial governor spokesman Ataullah Khogyani said.
Provincial health director Najeebullah Kamawal and Khogyani both confirmed the latest casualty toll.
The attack came hours after a double bombing in front of a girls’ school in the provincial capital Jalalabad, which killed a boy and wounded four others.
The first explosion happened in front of Malika Omaira girls’ school at around 8.30am (0400 GMT), Khogyani told journalists earlier.
A second bomb went off as students from a neighbouring boys’ school and locals gathered at the scene, he added.
There has been no claim of responsibility for any of the attacks, but the Taliban and the Daesh group are active in Nangarhar. I don’t know are alive or