“We were holding a peaceful demonstration when I heard a bang and then everyone was escaping and yelling”, said Sabira Jan, a protestor who witnessed the attack and saw bloodied bodies strewn across the ground.
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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.
Twin explosions tore through a street demonstration by members of Afghanistan’s mainly Shi’ite Muslim Hazara minority in Kabul, killing at least 80 people and wounding more than 230 in a suicide attack claimed by Islamic State.
The attack is one of the deadliest in Afghanistan since the Taliban launched a violent insurgency in 2001.
According to Tolo News, police said one suicide bomber detonated his explosives while the second person failed to explode his suicide vest.
A blast shook the Afghan capital earlier in the day during a peaceful protest over the planned 500kW power line project.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said he was “deeply saddened” by the attack and defended the people’s right to protest peacefully.
The blast in Kabul on Saturday afternoon happened during a demonstration by the Hazara, a Shiite minority group, near the Afghan Parliament building and Kabul University.
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”.
CNN reports that the death toll in the capital city of Kabul has reached 80 people as the Islamic State claims three suicide bombers carried out the attack in the crowd of protestors. IS claims the attack.
The bombing was also condemned by NATO’s Resolute Support Mission and Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry.
The march of protesters was taking place at the Demazang Square, which is near from the Afghan Parliament and Kabul University. However, the Islamic State is trying to establish its presence in Afghanistan and posed as a potent threat.
Eyewitness Ramin Anwari described seeing up to eight bodies in the Demazang area, where protesters were preparing to set up a camp after a four-hour march.
The bombings, apparently aimed at sowing sectarian discord in a country well known for Shia-Sunni harmony, came as thousands of Hazaras gathered to protest over a multi-million-dollar power line. The last one in May attracted tens of thousands of people and shut down the central business district.
Indeed, throughout much of the war the Hazara-dominated provinces in central Afghanistan were simply ignored by the Taliban, who mostly just worked around those regions. The Enlightenment Movement wants the line to be routed through Bamiyan to Kabul, Tolo News reported.
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The previous Afghan government changed the route in 2013.
