Authorities want to run the power line to Kabul through the Salang area in northeastern Afghanistan.
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Graphic television footage from the site of the attack showed many dead bodies lying on the bloodied road, close to where thousands of Hazara had been demonstrating over the route of a planned multimillion dollar power line.
On Saturday, the marchers – in vastly lower numbers than in May – walked and rode bicycles along their route from the largely Hazara neighborhoods of the city’s west.
Afghans help an injured man after an explosion struck a protest in Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, July 23, 2016.
In a statement issued by its news agency, Amaq, the Islamic State (ISIS) militant group claimed responsibility for the attack – reported as the deadliest in Kabul since the US invasion overthew the Taliban government in 2001. When the explosion happened, everything was demolished, everybody was dead in the street.
The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, one among a flurry of recent strikes tied to the self-proclaimed caliphate inside the country but the first to touch down on the capital city in recent years, according to the Associated Press.
So-called Islamic State (IS), the Sunni Muslim militant group, has said it was behind Saturday’s attack on members of the Shia Muslim Hazara minority.
The Taliban group rejected hand in the deadly attack and said the move was aimed at sparking tensions among the communities in the country. The attack was claimed by the Islamic State group.
The 500-kilovolt TUTAP power line, which would connect the Central Asian nations of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan with electricity-hungry Afghanistan and Pakistan, was originally set to pass through the central Province.
President Ashraf Ghani, declaring yesterday a national day of mourning, said: “I promise you that I will avenge the blood of our loved ones on the perpetrators of this crime”.
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”. Witnesses told the AP that Afghan security forces shot into the air just after the explosion in an apparent attempt to disperse the crowd. According to latest inputs, at least 80 people have been killed and over 200 injured in the tragic incident. The third bomber was killed by security forces at the scene before he could detonate his vest.
“They sold us and we will never forget this”, said Mr Ghulam Abbas, a Hazara mourner.
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“Based on initial information, the attack was carried out by three suicide bombers…”
