Khost blast kills 8 funeral participants

KHOST CITY (PAN): Eight people, including tribal elders, were killed when the car they were travelling in hit a bomb in southeastern Khost province on Friday, an official said.

The blast occurred in the Cholan area on the outskirts of Khost City, the provincial capital, at 2.30pm when the men were returning from funeral prayers, a police officer told Pajhwok Afghan News.

Brig. Yaqub Khan, the deputy police chief for Khost, said no one was injured in the explosion. He would not blame any individual or group for planting the landmine, but government officials often blame such attacks on the Taliban.

Resident Hayatullah claimed seeing several dead bodies at the site. The bodies were evacuated to city hospitals by funeral participants, he said.

The dweller said a large number of people from Khost and adjoining areas participated in the funeral for a man who the Pakistani Taliban had killed in the tribal region of Kurram on Thursday.

He added the victims included five members of a family, whose vehicle struck the roadside bomb while they were returning from the venue. The village Imam, who led the prayers, was among the dead, he continued.

President Hamid Karzai, meanwhile, condemned the bombing as a contemptible act that ran counter to Islam and values of the Afghan culture.

The attack is part of the conspiracies long hatched by outsiders and their puppets –the Taliban — against the people of Afghanistan, according to the president, who extended his sympathies to the victims’ families.

Governor Abdul Jabbar Naeemi, confirming the incident, vehemently denounced the attack and extended his sympathies to the victims’ families.

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