Taloqan, Afghanistan (dpa) – A suicide bomber blew himself up during a funeral ceremony in northern Afghanistan, killing at least 20 people, a senior police official said Sunday. The victims included a politician, Abdul Mutalib Beg, an ally of President Hamid Karzai and a well-known former Jihadi commander in northern Afghanistan who fought the Soviet army in the 1980s. Beg had also served as a deputy minister for tribal and border affairs before he was elected to parliament in 2010. The attack marked the second biggest single-day death toll suffered by Afghan civilians in less than a month. Earlier this month, a suicide bomber blew himself up in a Shiite shrine during the Ashura festival in Kabul, killing 80 civilians and injuring more than hundred others. According to Mohmood Hasan, the provincial deputy police chief, Sunday's lone bomber had targeted a funeral ceremony attended by government employees and tribal elders in Taloqan city, the capital of Takhar province. “At least 20 people, including Abdul Mutalib Beg, a lawmaker in parliament, were killed and around 50 others were wounded,” the deputy police chief said. Officials confirmed that among the killed were also members of the provincial council. Locals and tribal elders including the lawmaker had been attending a funeral ceremony for the father of Beg's personal bodyguard, near the local airport, when the bomber's explosives went off. An eyewitness, Hajji Momen, said he had been “shocked to see a big explosion in the midst of the crowd as they were leaving the site after the funeral.” “People are right now burying their loved ones in the same places,” he said. A dpa reporter on the scene said hundreds of people had rushed to the provincial hospital in the Taloqan city to see if their loved ones were among the dead or injured. Karzai “strongly condemned” the suicide bombing. “This ruthless act of terror to target innocent people who had gathered for a religious ceremony yet again demonstrates the vile and vicious nature of the enemy,” Karzai said in a statement released by his palace. No one had yet taken responsibility for the attack. The Taliban, who have been fighting a decade-long insurgency, were not immediately available for comment. They have in recent months repeatedly targeted politicians close to the central government. Takhar has seen a spate of targeted killings of Afghan officials. In May, a top police commander for northern Afghanistan was killed in an explosion at the governor's mansion. Mohammad Omar, the then provincial governor of neighboring Kunduz province, was also killed in a suicide attack in a mosque in Takhar last year. The United Nations, in its latest report on Afghanistan, said “security-related events” were up 21 per cent this year, compared with the first 11 months of 2010. NATO-led international forces, on the other hand, say “enemy-initiated attacks” have decreased by 8 per cent over the same period. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/y2iG5 Tags: Afghanistan, Attack, Death, Suicide Bomber Section: Asia, Latest News
