ISLAMABAD, Aug 07 (Alliance News): At least 8 people were killed and 22 injured as a result of an explosion in a busy market yesterday in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan.
According to foreign media report, the militant group Daesh (Islamic State) claimed responsibility for the attack through its Telegram channel.
A senior medical officer of a private hospital said that at least 8 people were killed and 22 injured in the attack.
The blast took place in a western district of the city, where people belonging to the minority Shia community are found in large numbers.
An investigation team is at the scene of the blast to assess the casualties and assist the injured, the interior ministry spokesman said.
Footage posted online showed ambulances heading to the scene, which is close to bus stations.
This attack happened a few days before Ashura, which is the commemoration of the martyrdom of Imam Hussain, the grandson of the Prophet of Islam (PBUH).
Earlier on Friday, at least eight people were killed and 18 injured in an explosion in a neighborhood of western Kabul, mostly inhabited by the Hazara community, also claimed by Daesh.
ISIS does not control any territory in Afghanistan, but the group has dormant operatives (sleeper cells) who are attacking religious minorities in the country as well as Afghan Taliban patrols.
Taliban officials, who took power in Afghanistan in August last year after a two-decade insurgency, said they would provide more security and other facilities to mosques where Shiites pray.
Syed Kazem Hujat, a religious scholar in Kabul, said the Taliban government had increased security ahead of Ashura, but surveillance needed to be improved.
A bomb attached to a handcart exploded in Kabul on Friday, killing eight civilians in an area dominated by Afghanistan’s minority Shiite Muslim community, officials said.
Police spokesperson Khalid Zadran said in a statement that 18 people were also injured in the blast.
The number of violent attacks across the country has decreased since the Taliban came to power in August last year, but ISIS has continued to target the Shiite population.
There is no up-to-date census data in Afghanistan, but it is estimated that the Shia community makes up between 10 and 20 percent of the population of 39 million, including Persian-speaking Tajiks and Pashtuns and Hazaras.
