KABUL, 24 August 2005 — An Islamic cleric escaped unhurt after suspected Taleban militants bombed his house yesterday in the latest attack on religious leaders who back Afghanistan’s US-friendly administration, officials said.
Maulvi Rahmatullah, leader of the religious council of the southeastern province of Khost, was leaving his house when the blast happened, said Interior Ministry spokesman Lutfullah Mashal.
The attack was the sixth on pro-government Muslim clerics in the past three months. Mashal blamed it on “enemies of peace and stability” — Afghan jargon for the Taleban and their allies.
On Sunday, Taleban insurgents shot dead Mulla Abdullah Malang, deputy head of the religious council of the Panjwaey district in restive Kandahar province, and his companion.
In May, Maulvi Abdullah Fayyaz, chief of the Islamic Council in the southern city and former Taleban stronghold of Kandahar, was gunned down near his house. Twenty-one people died when a suicide bomber struck at his funeral on June 1.
