It was the Taliban’s first major attack since new leadership was installed last week.
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The Quadrilateral Coordination Group, made up of officials from Afghanistan, Pakistan, the United States and China, has been trying to facilitate direct talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban.
The insurgents had initially detained almost 200 passengers at highway checkpoints as they were traveling from Kabul to the northeastern Takhar and Badakhshan provinces early Tuesday morning.
“After we searched the buses, we detained 26 police and army personnel in civilian clothes with evidence”, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement. He added that 10 of the hostages were later released but that the abductors still have eight people. They briefly held the capital city, Kunduz, previous year before it was recaptured by Afghan forces.
Other officials said over a dozen civilians, including the chief judge of the court, were also wounded in the incident.
Sediq Sediqqi, a spokesman for the country’s interior minister, said the attackers concealed themselves under women’s traditional head-to-toe coverings, called burqas, which they removed during the attack.
The Taliban are thought to have attacked several buses on a road in Afghanistan’s north, killing nine people and abducting at least 35.
The Taliban militants have earlier abducted a senior police official of Kunduz province while travelling on the province highway.
“The first attacker wanted to detonate a auto bomb near the Appeal Court to open a way for other attackers (but was stopped by security)”.
The Taliban also claimed responsibility for a deadly roadside bomb attack in the northern Balkh province Wednesday, which killed Sholgara district police chief Bismullah Khan.
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Going into detail, the official said that one of the suicide bombers after killing the guard of the court gate by pistol blew himself up and enabled three others to enter the court compound.
