KABUL: A key gathering of prominent Afghan politicians, involving former President Hamid Karzai and current top government heads, came under attack in Kabul on Thursday, officials said.

One report said that Latif Pedram, a presidential candidate, was wounded in the attack, but that could not be confirmed immediately.

Officials said at least three people were killed and 22 others injured in the incident which took place in Dashte Barchi, a Shiite-dominated part of the city where the politicians had gathered to commemorate the assassination of an ethnic Hazara leader who was killed more than two decades ago by the Taliban.

Daesh on its website, Amaq, claimed responsibility for the attack, Reuters reported. Affiliates of the network among other attacks, have asserted responsibility for all of the strikes targeting Shiite and Hazaras who are also Shiites in recent years in Afghanistan.

Eight bodyguards of another presidential hopeful, Haneef Atmar, were wounded in the strike, officials said.

Reacting to the incident, Atmar tweeted: “I’ve arrived home safe and unharmed from today’s terrorist attack in Dasht e Barchi but 8 of my security guards have been injured. This was the most horrid and unforgivable attack on civilians by a merciless enemy. I’m pained by the loss of life and injury suffered by some many.”

Deputy interior minister General Khoshal Sadaat released a statement saying that a house was used as a spot for firing mortars on the crowd which consisted of several thousand people.

The attack, one of many to take place in the past several days, could further dent the progress of peace talks to end the Afghan conflict, with representatives from the Taliban and the US holding several rounds of dialogue for the process.

President Ashraf Ghani, who is standing for re-election from his office in a statement condemned the attack, calling it a “criminal act and hostility with civil values and democracy”.

Panic-stricken participants could be seen on TVs fleeing the site which came under fire of at least ten mortar rounds.

Some, including women and girls, cried and yelled as participants were rushing to leave the sprawling open ground where the gathering was held.

The interior ministry said the mortar rounds fell some 100 meters away from the site of the event.

Karzai later in a statement said the attack was conducted by “foreign elements opposing peace and unity” in Afghanistan.

Mohammad Mohaqiq, a Hazara faction leader who is second deputy on Atmar’s ticket inside aid had enabled Daesh to conduct its attacks in Afghanistan, “I think all these episodes either go to the weakness of the government or the government is collaborating with such circles to use them as a tool in view of current sensitive situation against its political rivals,” he later told a press briefing.

Atta Mohammad Noor who also belongs to Atmar’s camp described the attack as “organized one” staged by “circles” within the government. He said the attack showed the government’s “incompetency.”

The presidential palace rejected the accusations.