The National Directorate of Security, Afghanistan’s main intelligence agency, said the attack was masterminded by Abu Ali, an ISIS commander in Nangarhar’s volatile Achin district.
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An Interior Ministry statement said 80 people had been killed and 231 wounded, with local hospitals straining to cope with those being brought in.
Afghans help a man who was injured in the suicide blast that struck a protest march in Kabul.
The Islamic State, in a statement through the group’s Amaq News Agency, claimed the carnage as a “martyrdom attack on Shias”.
Afghan authorities have closed off streets across the capital, Kabul, in preparation for a demonstration by ethnic Hazaras demanding a planned power line be rerouted through their poverty-stricken province. 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.
The Taleban, a fierce enemy of IS, denied any involvement and saying on its website that the attack was “a plot to ignite civil war”.
Police have been moving trucks and containers into the city overnight Friday to block roads and prevent marchers reaching the city center or the presidential palace.
President Ashraf Ghani vowed “revenge” against the perpetrators of the attack and announced Sunday as a national day of mourning.
“Based on initial information, the attack was carried out by three suicide bombers…” “On April 18, local media received text messages allegedly from Shahidullah Shahid, a key figure in the establishment of Wilayat Khorasan, claiming responsibility on behalf of ISIS for the attack”, the Institute for the Study of War reported.
“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.
“Peaceful protest is the right of every citizen, but opportunist terrorists infiltrated the crowds and carried out the attack, killing and injuring a number of citizens including some security forces”.
The Secretary-General also extended his condolences to the families of the victims and expressed his solidarity with the people and Government of Afghanistan, the statement added.
An estimated 231 people were wounded after two suicide bombers targeted a peaceful demonstration in Kabul’s Dehmazang Square. The U.S embassy in Kabul also issued a condemnation.
They had gathered in the west of the city to demand that a proposed electricity transmission line be routed through the Hazara-dominated central province of Bamian. Violence had been feared at what was the second demonstration by Hazaras over the power line issue.
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Later, the government changed the northern Salang Pass by calling it a cost-effective move and rejected the allegations of being indifferent made by the Hazara leaders.
