About 50 people were killed and 60 others wounded when a suicide blast ripped through large crowds gathered to watch a volleyball game in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, officials said.
The attack, the deadliest blast in Afghanistan since 2011, struck during a tournament between three local teams in the volatile Paktika province which borders Pakistan.
“The suicide attacker was on a motorcycle, he detonated himself in the middle of a volleyball match,” said Attaullah Fazli, deputy governor of Paktika. “A lot of people including some provincial officials and the police chief were there. About 50 people have been killed, and 60 injured, a lot of them seriously.”
The blast in Yahya Khail district of Paktika erupted at about 5:00 pm when hundreds of people were cheering on a match, provincial spokesman Mukhlis Afghan told AFP.
“The scale of the attack and its aftermath is shocking,” he said. “We have asked Kabul to send us helicopters to take some of the critically wounded for treatment.”
President Ashraf Ghani, who came to power in September, swiftly condemned the attack, describing it as “inhumane and un-Islamic”. “This kind of brutal killing of civilians cannot be justified,” he said in a statement.
There was no immediate response from the Taliban insurgents, who are responsible for many of the attacks across Afghanistan.
Paktika was also struck by a massive suicide blast in July, when a bomber driving a truck packed with explosives killed at least 41 people at a busy market in Urgun district.
A suicide bombing at a mosque in the northern province of Faryab in October 2012 killed 42 people, while another suicide blast at a shrine in Kabul on the Shiite holy day of Ashura in December 2011 killed 80.
Sunday’s attack occurred on the same day that the lower house of parliament approved agreements to allow about 12,500 Nato-led troops to stay on next year as the Afghan army and police struggle to hold back the Taliban.
US-led Nato combat operations will finish at the end of this year, but the Taliban have launched a series of offensives that have severely tested Afghan soldiers and police. The new Nato mission, named Resolute Support, will focus on supporting the Afghan forces, in parallel with US counter-terrorism operations.
The army and police have suffered 4,634 fatalities in combat to the beginning of November this year.
Pakistan denounces the attack
Pakistan strongly condemned the Paktika terrorist attack. “No cause justifies such acts of terrorism and taking of innocent lives,” the Foreign Office said in a statement.
“We extend our heartfelt sympathies and condolences to the government and people of Afghanistan and to the bereaved families. We also pray for swift recovery of the wounded,” it added.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 24th, 2014.
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So much death. Sad. R.I.P.