PUL-E-KHUMRI, Afghanistan, 7 November 2007 — Forty people including six lawmakers were killed in a suicide attack in Afghanistan yesterday, a health official said.
Government officials said the bomber blew himself up outside a sugar factory in the northern province of Baghlan as dozens of people welcomed a delegation of senior members of Parliament and other dignitaries. There was no immediate claim of responsibility but there have been around 120 suicide attacks in Afghanistan this year, most of them blamed on the Taleban movement.
The burned and mangled bodies of adults and children littered the site, which was drenched with blood, said Aziz Ahmad Nadem, an MP who survived the bombing in the town of Pul-e-Khumri, 150 km north of Kabul.
The dead included Mustafa Kazimi, an MP from Kabul and former commerce minister who headed parliament’s economics committee. Four of his bodyguards were also killed, an official said.
Deputy Agriculture Minister Ghulam Mustafa Jawad was among the wounded, his office said.
Eighteen MPs were in the delegation that visited the factory.
