KABUL (Reuters) – A bomber was killed at the gate of a passport office in the Afghan capital Kabul on Thursday, a government spokesman said, and several people were injured in the blast, according to reports.
A spokesman for Afghanistan’s Interior Ministry said the attacker was shot and killed while trying to enter the passport office premises.
One member of the Taliban who was a witness told Reuters multiple people were injured, and the building and streets around the area were locked down by Taliban security forces.
Large crowds of Afghans have been thronging outside the passport office in a bid to get travel documents in recent days after the service was restarted after weeks of suspension.
Officials said that Thursdays are reserved as a special day for Taliban officials to visit the passport office to make travel documents.
No individual or group has claimed responsibility for the latest attack, but Taliban officials in the past have blamed the Daesh terrorist group for similar attacks on civilians.
Daesh has a foothold in eastern and northern Afghanistan, particularly in Nangarhar, which is regarded as its base in the war-torn country. It has claimed responsibility for several attacks against the Taliban recently.
Thousands of Afghans have applied for new travel documents to escape a growing economic and humanitarian crisis described by the United Nations as an “avalanche of hunger”.
Afghanistan has been teetering on the brink of a major humanitarian catastrophe. In recent weeks, UN agencies have warned that millions of Afghans could run out of food before the onset of the winter and around one million children are at risk of starvation.
According to recent surveys by the World Food Programme (WFP), an estimated 98% of Afghans are not eating enough, with seven in 10 families resorting to borrowing food, which pushes them deeper into poverty.