Witnesses said the blasts happened where hundreds of Afghanistan’s Hazara minority had gathered to protest over the route of a planned multimillion-dollar power line.
Advertisement
Authorities say another 231 people were wounded, some seriously, in the bombing Saturday afternoon on a march by members of the ethnic Hazara community, who are predominantly Shiite Muslim.
Earlier, Waheed Majroeh, the head of worldwide relations for the Ministry of Public Health, said the death toll was likely to rise “as the condition of numerous injured is very serious”.
“Two fighters from Islamic State detonated explosive belts at a gathering of Shi’ites in. the city of Kabul in Afghanistan”, Amaq, an ISIL-linked website, said.
The attack targeting the protesters was quickly claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS), a hardline group with a history of targeting the Hazara people.
“The horrific attack on a group of peaceful protestors in Kabul demonstrates the utter disregard that armed groups have for human life”, Amnesty International said in a statement.
Much of the city centre had been sealed off with stacks of shipping containers and other obstacles as the march began earlier on Saturday (local time), and security was tight with helicopters patrolling overhead. He said that three district police chiefs on duty at the square were injured and another three security personnel were killed. Casualty numbers are not officially released, but according to figures provided by military officials, at least 5,000 troops were killed in 2014, rising to more than 6,000 a year ago.
Two suicide bombers had attempted to target the demonstrators, but one of them was shot by police before he could detonate his explosives, according to Haroon Chakhansuri, a spokesman for Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.
The government has announced a ban on public protests for at least 10 days after Saturday’s demonstration, which was largely peaceful before the explosions tore through the crowds.
Violence had been widely feared at the Hazaras’ demonstration, the second to take place over the electric power line.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani proclaimed Sunday would be a day of national mourning and called for an investigation into the attack. The last one in May attracted tens of thousands.
Leaders of the marches have said that the rerouting was evidence of bias against the Hazara community.
The marchers were demanding that the power line be routed through their impoverished province, Bamiyan. During the Taliban’s 1996-2001 rule, Hazaras were often brutalized more than other ethnic groups.
They have long complained of discrimination. And despite heavy fighting early in the year, levels of insurgent violence have been lower than many USA military officials had expected since the end of the fasting month of Ramadan in early July.
Advertisement
At the request of the Hazara, Ghani also renamed the attack site as “Martyr’s Square” in honor of the victims.
