The ministry’s announcement – which may be seeking to address concerns about sectarian violence – cites Afghan police law and the worldwide covenant on civil and political rights.
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At the height of the march, demonstrators chanted slogans against the president and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, shouting “death to discrimination” and “all Afghans are equal”.
The attack comes almost three weeks after a suicide bomber killed dozens of people in an attack on newly graduated police cadets that was claimed by the Taliban.
-June 27, 2016: An IS-affiliate carries out seven simultaneous attacks in Yemen’s southern port of Mukalla, killing 43 people, mostly intelligence and security troops. Some threw stones at security forces.
At least 80 people have been killed and 231 others injured in a twin suicide attack on a demonstration in Kabul, officials said.
Before the explosions, the demonstration had been largely peaceful. Most of the population is Sunni.
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack via its Aamaq news agency.
Afghans help a man who was injured in the deadly explosion. “Attacks like these only strengthen our resolve to continue our mission in Afghanistan and deepen our support for the people and government there”, said State Department spokesman John Kirby in a statement. “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 ministry’s deputy spokesman, Najib Danish, said the blast was the biggest in Afghanistan since 2001, when the Taliban launched their brutal insurgency after they were toppled by the 2001 US invasion.
President Ashraf Ghani has announced an upcoming military offensive in Nangarhar, expected to start within days, aimed at eliminating IS from the country.
Hazara politcal leaders had attended the May demonstrations, but wee notable by their absence on Saturday.
But in the midst of Saturday’s peaceful demonstration, two militants detonated explosives, sending the event into chaos.
Hazaras are predominantly Shiite Muslims, and IS views all Shiites as apostates. The bombings during a huge protest over a power transmission line could deepen sectarian divisions in a country well known for communal harmony despite decades of war. He had no further details.
Seddiq Sediqqi, spokesman for the Ministry of Interior, says police were working to confirm initial reports of the blast. The blasts took place in Deh Mazang area of the Afghan capital where thousands of protesters had gathered to protest against the route of a planned power line project.
Road blocks that had been set up overnight to prevent the marchers accessing the city center or the presidential palace hampered efforts to transfer some of the wounded to the hospital, witnesses said. The last one in May attracted tens of thousands of people, also shutting down the central business district.
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The so-called TUTAP power line is backed by the Asian Development Bank with involvement of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The original plan routed the line through Bamiyan province, in the central highlands, where most of the country’s Hazaras live.
