KABUL (Dispatches) – Nineteen people have been killed and dozens more wounded in a bomb explosion, suspected to be carried out by Taliban militants, at a mosque in Afghanistan’s eastern province of Khost, police and officials say, capping a bloody week in the crisis-hit country.
According to Basir Bina, spokesman for the provincial police, the deadly blast occurred on Sunday as people had gathered following afternoon prayers in the mosque, which was also being used as a voter registration center for parliamentary elections slated to be held in October.
The official added that the explosion seemed to be the result of explosives planted in the mosque rather than by terrorists detonating explosive belts.
Bina’s speculation was confirmed by provincial police chief Abdul Hanan as he believed that the bomb had been placed in a tenet being used to register voters in the yard of the mosque. "A crowd of people, who had come out of the mosque, had gathered to register” when the blast took place, Hanan added.
Provincial deputy director of public health Gul Mohammad Mangal said at least 33 people sustained injuries in the attack.
No group or individual has claimed responsibility for the attack, but it has the hallmark of Taliban, who have been leading a campaign of death and destruction across the crisis-hit country for the past 17 years.
It was the latest attack on election preparations, seen as a key test of the government's credibility, and comes nearly a week after 25 people, including nine journalists, lost their lives in a pair of back-to-back bomb blasts that hit near government buildings in the capital Kabul.
Last month, some 60 people lost their lives in a voter center in Kabul in a bomb attack claimed by the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group. Taliban have also warned people not to participate in the elections.
Sunday’s deadly explosion came as fierce fighting between government troops and Taliban has spread across the war-torn country, with government officials saying that a district in the northern province of Badakhshan that was overrun by Taliban last week had been liberated.
In a separate development, seven people were killed in an explosion when their vehicle ran over a roadside bomb in the northern province of Faryab early on Sunday morning, said Mohammad Karim Yuresh, the provincial police spokesman.
In another development, Afghan forces backed by air strikes have retaken a district in the northern province of Badakhshan that was seized last week by Taliban militants, officials said, as fighting continued across Afghanistan.
Provincial police spokesman Sanaullah Rohani said Kohistan district, which fell to the insurgents on Thursday, was retaken by army and police forces backed by air support on Saturday. Taliban fighters were also pushed back in Teshkan district, where they had taken a number of checkpoints.
"The Taliban suffered heavy casualties, but there is no updated information on the exact number as the area is remote and the telecommunication system weak,” he said.
With the Taliban’s annual spring offensive well under way, there was violence in several parts of the country.
Late on Saturday, a district governor in Paktia province, on the border with Pakistan, was among five people wounded in a car bomb explosion, Abdullah Hasrat, spokesman for the Paktia provincial governor said.
 
Afghan policemen inspect a mosque after a blast in Khost Province, Afghanistan, May 6, 2018.