Family among 11 dead in Badghis blast

QALA-I-NAW (PAN): Nearly a dozen people, most of them from the same family, were killed when the vehicle they were travelling in hit a landmine in northwestern Badghis province, the Ministry of Interior said on Tuesday.

The incident took place in the Gulchin area of Qadis district on Monday afternoon, local security officials said.

The Interior Ministry in a statement said the dead included six children, two women, a man, and two policemen.

Nine of the dead belonged to the same family, the statement said, adding a two-year-old child and another two policemen were injured in the blast.

The vehicle was part of a three-vehicle police convoy which had just stopped to pick up a family who needed a lift into the district centre.

The ministry condemned the attack as an un-Islamic act which killed the civilians during the second day of Eidul Azha holiday.

The Taliban have claimed responsibility for the attack. Their spokesman Qari Yousaf Ahmadi claimed seven policemen had been killed and their vehicle completely destroyed.

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