Karzai slams Herat blast; toll goes up

HERAT CITY (PAN): President Hamid Karzai on Wednesday condemned a motorised rickshaw explosion which claimed 19 lives in the Obe district of western Herat province.

The incident took place in Taj area late on Tuesday, killing at least 19 people including 12 women, a man and six children. Several others were injured, the district police chief, Sher Agha, told Pajhwok Afghan News.

Five children, a woman and a man were wounded in the incident, the police spokesman, Col. Abdul Rauf Ahmadi, said. All victims were members of a nomadic Kuchi tribe and were on their way to Herat City.

Kuda-i-Nazar, who visited an injured person, said the Taliban ordered them to leave the village because they were going to conduct operations against the government.

Subsequently, the Kuchi tribe members rented a house in the district bazaar, he said, adding the ill-fated family met the tragedy on their way to the new house.

He had brought five injured children and a man to Herat Civil Hospital, but the wounded man was in a critical condition, Nazar said.

President Hamid Karzai, meanwhile, strongly denounced the bombing, calling the killings a terrorist and inhuman act. “Taliban have once again planted this roadside bomb at the behest of outsiders, killing Afghans in the holy month of Ramadan.”

A statement from his office said Karzai had instructed Herat Governor Syed Fazlullah Wahidi to ensure immediate assistance to the victims’ families.

myn/mmud

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