ISLAMABAD: Pakistan condemned on Friday twin bomb blasts that killed at least nine people and injured 13 in Afghanistan’s Mazar-e-Sharif, northern Afghanistan.
Bombs exploded aboard two passenger vehicles in the capital of northern Balkh province. Local officials told the media the victims were travelling home to break their Ramadan fast on Thursday.
The blasts were claimed by the Daesh.
“Pakistan strongly condemns terrorist attacks in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan on 28 April 2022 causing loss of precious Afghan lives and injuring many others,” the Pakistani foreign office said in a statement.
“We believe these heinous acts of terrorism against innocent Afghans are aimed at weakening the resolve of the Afghan nation in pursuit of peace, stability and progress.”
The number of violent attacks across Afghanistan has fallen since the Taliban took over Afghanistan in August last year. Earlier this week, Afghan authorities said that they had eliminated most of Daesh presence in the country. But attacks against members of the Shiite Hazara minority continue across Afghanistan.
“The targeting of Hazara and Shia community in Afghanistan through these acts of terrorism is also a matter of serious concern,” the Pakistani foreign office said.
“We urge the international community to extend all possible support and assistance to Afghanistan in combating terrorism and overcoming these challenges.”
Thursday’s blasts came a week after a deadly explosion at a Shiite mosque in Mazar-e-Sharif, which killed at least 16 people and wounded scores more.
On April 19, a series of explosions at a high school and educational center in the Afghan capital, Kabul, killing at least six people, including students, in the Afghan capital’s predominantly Shiite neighborhood of Dasht-e-Barchi.
