Taliban fighters and medical staff stand outside the gate of a hospital after an explosion at Imam Sahib district
(Picture: AFP via Getty Images)At least 33 people have been killed after a bomb was detonated at a mosque and religious teaching school in Afghanistan, a Taliban official has said.
Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban’s deputy culture and information minister, said the bombing in the town of Imam Saheb, in Kunduz Province, also wounded another 43 people, many of them students.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, but Afghanistan’s Islamic State affiliate on Friday claimed a series of bombings that happened a day earlier.
This included an attack on a Shiite mosque in northern Mazar-e-Sharif that killed at least 12 Shiite Muslim worshippers and wounded scores more.
Mujahid branded the attackers “seditioners and evil elements” and said his government “condemned the crime”.
Since assuming power last August, the Taliban have been battling an Islamic State affiliate group named IS-K. International officials and analysts say that the risk of a resurgence in militancy remains despite the Taliban’s claim to have secured the country.
In a statement on Friday, IS-K said explosive devices were detonated remotely in Mazar-e-Sharif’s Sai Doken mosque as worshippers knelt down to pray.
The Taliban claimed they had arrested a former IS-K leader in in northern Balkh province, of which Mazar-e-Sharif is the capital.
Zabihullah Noorani, information and culture department chief in Balkh province, said Abdul Hamid Sangaryar was arrested in connection with Thursday’s mosque attack.
Richard Bennett, the United Nation’s Special Rapporteur for Afghanistan on human rights, condemned the blasts.
“Today more explosions rocks Afghanistan... systematic targeted attacks on crowded schools and mosques calls for immediate investigation, accountability and end to human rights violations," he said in a Tweet.
The IS-K also took responsibility for a brutal bombing outside the Kabul International Airport in August 2021 that killed more than 160 Afghans who had been pushing to enter the airport to flee the country.
