Kabul: A heavy blast in a Kabul mosque left at least Twenty people, including a cleric, killed, and at least 27 others injured during evening prayers on Wednesday.
The attack on Afghanistan on Wednesday was the most recent to occur in the year since the Taliban seized power, but there was no immediate claim of responsibility.
There were rumours that several children were among the injured, raising concerns that the number of fatalities would increase.
Since the Taliban took control of the country in August, the local affiliate of the Islamic State group has increased assaults against civilians and the Taliban.
The Kabul police chief’s spokesperson for the Taliban, Khalid Zadran, confirmed the mosque blast in the city’s north, but he would not give a number of casualties or a breakdown of the injured and dead.
The explosion was also denounced by a spokesman for the Taliban, Zabihullah Mujahid, who also promised that “perpetrators of such atrocities will soon be brought to justice and will be punished.”
Last week, a senior Taliban cleric, Sheikh Rahimullah Haqqani, was killed in a suicide bomb blast in a seminary in Kabul when an attacker detonated explosives hidden in a plastic artificial leg, international media reported.
Rahimullah Haqqani was a fierce supporter of female education and stood strong against the militant Islamic State (IS) group.
He previously had survived two assassination attempts — including one in Pakistan in October 2020 claimed by the Islamic State that killed at least seven people.
“Very sadly informed that respected cleric (Sheikh Rahimullah Haqqani) was martyred in a cowardly attack by enemies,” said Bilal Karimi, a spokesperson for the Taliban administration.
