An Afghan official says the death toll in the bombing of a mass protest in Kabul has risen to 61.
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“Holding protests is the right of every citizen of Afghanistan and the government puts all efforts to provide security for the protestors, but terrorists entered the protests, and carried out explosions that martyred and wounded a number of citizens including members of security forces”, the presidential palace said.
Such was the fury of demonstrators, many threw stones at the security forces…
Outside hospitals, huge queues forms as the public offered to donate blood.
One of the march organisers Laila Mohammadi said she arrived at the scene soon after the blast and saw “many dead and wounded people”.
The bombings, which the United Nations denounced as a “war crime”, mark the deadliest single attack in Kabul since the Taliban were toppled from power in a 2001 US-led invasion, the interior ministry said.
The spokesman for Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has told The Associated Press that the central government had shared intelligence with the organizers of a protest march in Kabul that was bombed, warning that the marchers faced a possible “terrorist attack”. None of the organizers could be immediately reached for comment.
The Daesh claimed the bombings in a statement carried by its affiliated Amaq news agency, calling it an attack on Shi’ites.
“I saw many people were killed and a lot of them were covered with blood; there was nobody to help the victims”.
President Ashraf Ghani has announced an upcoming military offensive in Nangarhar, expected to start within days, aimed at eliminating IS from the country. The Taliban, who are often behind major assaults in Afghanistan, denied any involvement.
Hazaras, most of whom are Shiite Muslims, were especially persecuted during the extremist Sunni Taliban 1996-2001 regime.
Earnest says the USA and the global community stand firmly with the Afghan people and their government to confront the forces that threaten the country’s security, stability and prosperity.
The second most deadly attack to hit Kabul since 2001 also targeted Shiites and was seen as an attempt to stoke sectarian violence.
One of the suicide bombers was shot by the police, he told AP. That attack was linked to a Pakistani militant group.
The United Nations, Pakistan’s foreign ministry and the USA embassy in Kabul each released statements condemning the attack. He said in a statement that “We strongly condemn the actions of Afghanistan’s enemies of peace and remain firmly committed to supporting our Afghan partners and the National Unity Government”. The U.S embassy in Kabul also issued a condemnation.
“An attack deliberately targeting a large, concentrated group of civilians amounts to a war crime”, Tadamichi Yamamoto, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Afghanistan, said in a statement issued by the UN Assistance Mission for Afghanistan (UNAMA), which he heads up.
Graphic television footage from the site of the blasts showed charred bodies and dismembered limbs lying on a bloodied road in Deh Mazang circle, close to where thousands of the Hazara had been demonstrating over the route of a planned multimillion dollar power line.
The 500-kilovolt TUTAP power line, which would connect the Central Asian nations of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan with electricity-hungry Afghanistan and Pakistan, was originally set to pass through the central province. Leaders of the marches have said that the rerouting was evidence of bias against the Hazara community, which accounts for up to 15 percent of Afghanistan estimated 30 million-strong population.
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They are considered the poorest of the country’s ethnic groups, and often complain of discrimination.
