Death toll from Kabul sports club attack rises to 26

KABUL (Pajhwok): The death toll from Wednesday’s double suicide attack on a wrestling club in capital Kabul has risen to 26 with another 91 wounded, officials said Thursday.

The deadly attack unfolded as an Islamic State or Daesh suicide bomber attacked the sports club Omaid Maiwand in Qala-i-Nazar area of Kabul city on Wednesday afternoon.

An hour apart, a second suicide attacker in a car targeted journalists and other people who had gathered at the site of the earlier blast.

Ministry of Public Health spokesman Waheed Majroh said 26 people were killed and 91 others wounded in the twin blasts. Journalists were among the dead and wounded.

Two journalists of Tolo television channel were killed and five journalists working with other media outlets were wounded in the attack.

Roads to the incident area remained cordoned off by security forces today.

A Pajhwok Afghan News reporter who visited the incident site saw human flesh, a severed hand, blood, broken window glasses and footwear of many sportsmen inside the sports club.

An eyewitness, Ghulam Ali, told Pajhwok Afghan News a heavy explosion was heard inside the club around 6pm last afternoon and then many people gathered at the scene.

 “When we arrived in the club, we saw many youth covered in blood, all people were trying to take the injured to hospitals,” he said.

A suspected Corolla model vehicle parked near the club was checked by security forces after people noticed it, but the car bomb went off, just 50 minutes later.

“Unfortunately security forces are very weak, they reach an incident area hours later, the government has failed to prevent such attacks, if the situation continues, hundreds of more families would mourn the deaths of their beloved ones,” he said.

Mohammad Hussain, another eyewitness of the incident, also criticized the government for its failure to prevent such attacks and said: “Divisions inside the government should be blamed for such deadly incidents. We do not know why a specific ethnic group is targeted on a daily basis.”

He voiced on Hazara leaders to develop an efficient strategy that could prevent innocent people from being killed and maimed.

Last month, dozens of people were killed in a similar attack on an education center in Dasht-i-Barchi area of Kabul.

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