News / Afghanistan

Twin blasts kill 17 in Afghanistan's predominantly Shia Hazara city of Bamiyan

Tuesday, 24 November 2020 7:35 PM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 24 November 2020 7:44 PM ]

Security personnel and onlookers stand at the site of a blast along the roadside in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand Province, on November 12, 2020. (Photo by AFP)

At least 17 people have been killed and dozens of others injured in two explosions in the Afghan city of Bamiyan, which is home to many members of the Shia Hazara Muslim community.

Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Tariq Arian said that the blasts took place in a marketplace in the evening rush hour on Tuesday.

Afghanistan’s Tolo News, quoting police sources, said that explosives had been hidden at the side of a road in the market.

The victims reportedly included at least 15 civilians, including children, and two traffic police officers.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the deadly attack.

The Shia Hazara Muslim community has been attacked by militants countless times over the past years.

In cities such as Kabul, Hazara Muslims have seen repeated attacks in their neighborhoods, including a brutal daylight assault on a hospital maternity ward that left several mothers dead in the capital in May.

Violence continues in Afghanistan even as government negotiators and the Taliban have been meeting in Qatar to reach a peace deal. There has been little progress in those meetings since September.

Afghanistan violence jumps 50 percent despite peace talks: Watchdog

A US watchdog says violent attacks across Afghanistan have increased by 50 percent in recent months.

Scattered calls to boycott the ongoing peace talks have risen following recent back-to-back attacks on education centers in Kabul claimed by the Takfiri terrorist group of Daesh. Some in the government insist they were carried out by the Taliban. The militants deny involvement.

In a deal reached between the United States and the Taliban in February, the administration of President Donald Trump promised to pull out all US troops from Afghanistan by mid-2021 in return for the Taliban stopping attacks on foreign forces in Afghanistan.

The agreement was also supposed to lay the groundwork for a peace process between the Taliban and the Afghan government.

The United Nations (UN) says about 6,000 Afghan civilians were killed or wounded in the first nine months of this year as heavy fighting between government forces and the Taliban raged on.

Taliban’s five-year rule over at least three quarters of Afghanistan came to an end with the United States-led invasion in 2001, but the militant group never stopped its militant activities.

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