JALALABAD (AP/Reuters) – A bomb exploded on Saturday during an award ceremony for journalists in Afghanistan’s Mazar-e- Sharif city, killing at least one person and wounded five others, a Taliban police spokesman said.
The blast occurred at the Tabian Farhang center in Mazar-e Sharif, the capital of Balkh province, as journalists gathered for the award event at 11 a.m., said Mohammad Asif Waziri, the Taliban-appointed spokesman for Balkh police.
“A blast has taken placed in the second police district of Balkh,” said Waziri. “We will share details later.” He said the authorities did not expect a high number of casualties but were investigating.
It came two days after a bomb in Mazar-e-Sharif killed the provincial governor, Daud Muzmal, and two others. Four were wounded.
The identity of the fatality in Saturday’s blast was not immediately known but journalists were among the five wounded. They included Najeeb Faryad, a reporter for Aryana News television station, who said he felt like something hit him in the back, followed by a deafening sound before he fell to the ground.
No one has immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but the regional affiliate of the Daesh terrorist group — known as the Daesh in Khorasan Province — is a key rival of the Taliban.
The militant group has increased its attacks in Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover of the country in August 2021. Targets have included Taliban patrols and members of Afghanistan’s Shia minority.
Taliban authorities were already investigating the explosion that killed the provincial governor, Mawlawi Mohammad Dawood Muzamil, and two others at his office on Thursday.
The governor of Afghanistan’s southern province of Kandahar will temporarily run Balkh, his spokesman Haji Zaid said, until Taliban chief Haibatullah Akhundzada selects a new governor for the northern province, an important trade hub with Central Asia.