2 female government staff killed in Kabul bomb attack

By Shadi Khan Saif

KABUL, Afghanistan

Two female government employees were killed and two other civilians were injured when a bomb targeted a minibus carrying them in the capital Kabul on Saturday, according to a senior police official.

Brig. Gen. Mohammad Salim Almas, chief of police’s crime branch, said an improvised explosives device had been planted on the minibus carrying staff of the Water Supply Department that was later detonated remotely in the city’s Macroryan neighborhood.

So far, no group has claimed responsibility for the incident that comes after a string of attacks on pro-government religious figures in the country.

On Friday, gunmen killed a senior pro-government Islamic scholar in Kabul. Saifur Rahman Stanikzai was the deputy head of Islamic sciences at the Afghanistan Academy of Sciences.

On Sunday, another pro-government Islamic scholar was also shot dead in front of his home in southern Kandahar province. Abdul Ghafoor Pairoz was said to be a young and promising writer who had also reportedly strongly criticized fundamentalism. Taliban had claimed the attack on him.

On Tuesday, another pro-government religious cleric and six children studying at his seminary were killed in a bomb attack in northern Parwan province. Mawlavi Abdul Rahim Shah Hanafi was the head of a provincial religious council and was said to be a critic of the Afghan Taliban.