“Protesting is the civil right of every citizen”.
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The attack was described by the top United Nations official in Afghanistan as a “war crime”. They were gathered together as free citizens, protected by courageous security forces who also fell victim in the line of duty.
Russian Federation and Brazil have condemned the twin explosions that tore through a demonstration in Afghanistan’s capital city Kabul on Saturday, killing at least 80 people and wounding more than 230. He also announced he was form-ing an investigative committee headed by the attorney general and comprised of government of-ficials and nongovernment representatives.
The Hazaras are Afghanistan’s third largest minority group.
They said three bombers were involved in the attack.
As well as the more than 80 dead, some 230 people were injured.
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. Most of the population is Sunni. If the claim proves true, it will be the first by the extremists in the Afghan capital, and one of the deadliest in Afghanistan since the Taliban launched their insurgency in 2001.
Russian Federation condemned the attack and renewed pledges of security assistance to Kabul.
Afghan men remove the clothes of victims after a suicide attack in Kabul, Afghanistan July 23, 2016.
The Washington Post reported that this was the highest death toll in relation to a terrorist attack in Kabul after over a decade of fighting between Taliban militants and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and Afghan forces. He said that three city district police chiefs were injured and another three security personnel were killed.
He says he the president will meet leaders of the Hazara demonstrators later today. Numerous leaders did not attend Saturday’s demonstration.
The Islamic State group claimed the bombings in a statement carried by its affiliated Amaq news agency, calling it an attack on Shias.
This is the first time the loyalists of the terror group claimed responsibility behind such a deadly attack in the capital city although assumptions are that the terror group is not capable to stage such a major attack in the city. During the late 1990s, when the Taliban regime held power in Kabul and most of the country, it banned Shiite religious holidays in public.
The movement also wanted the pipeline rerouted through Bamiyan, as originally demanded.
The demonstrators were gathering in Demazang Square as their four-hour protest march wound down and they were setting up a camp, Chakhansuri said. He had no further details. “It was the most shocking situation I’ve ever seen”, said Mohammad Zaher Muradi, witness.
The Afghan Interior Ministry, in a statement, reported the casualties and said 231 had been wounded in the blasts.
Thousands of people were demonstrating demanding changes to the route of a planned multi-million dollar power transmission line.
Violence had been widely feared at what was the second demonstration by Hazaras over the power line issue. The last one in May attracted tens of thousands.
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The protesters were demanding that the construction of an electrical transmission line from Turkmenistan to Pakistan via Kabul be rerouted through their province of Bamyan, which is not now connected to Afghanistan’s central electricity grid.
