2 dead in Lashkargah cemetery blast

LASHKARGAH (PAN): Two people were killed and 10 others wounded when bombs hidden in graves in a cemetery exploded in Lashkargah, the capital of southern Helmand province, on Sunday, police said.

The explosives were planted on three graves and apparently set off by using a remote-controlled device as relatives arrived at the graveyard in the Safyan area, police official Mohammad Ismail Hotak told Pajhwok Afghan News.

The bombs were hidden in the graves of a slain police chief for the Nawa district and his brother. The explosives went off when family members visited the cemetery after Eidul Fitr prayers, Hotak said.

The two men killed in the explosion were brothers of a lawmaker for Helmand, Abdulwadood Popal, who was not at the cemetery at the time of the blast.

A doctor on duty at the Lashkargah Emergency Hospital confirmed receiving two dead bodies and 10 injured people from the scene. He said the injured are in a stable condition.

No one has so far claimed responsibility for the attack, but it matched the declared strategy of the Taliban to target government officials and others who align themselves with the government or international forces.

In a message ahead of Eidul Fitr, Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar instructed his fighters once again to avoid killing or wounding Afghan civilians.

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