The death toll from an explosion near a school in a Shia district of west Kabul has risen to 58, Afghan officials said on Sunday, with doctors struggling to provide medical care to at least 150 people who were injured.

The bombing on Saturday evening shook the city’s neighbourhood of Dasht-e-Barchi. The community, a religious minority in Afghanistan, has been targeted in the past by Islamic State.An eyewitness told Reuters news agency all but seven or eight of the victims were schoolgirls going home after finishing their studies.

Bodies were still being collected from morgues as the first burials were conducted in the west of the city. Some families were still searching for missing relatives on Sunday, gathering outside hospitals to read names posted on the walls, and checking morgues.

Kabul has been on alert since Washington announced plans last month to pull out all US troops by September 11, with Afghan officials saying the Taliban has stepped up its attacks across the country.

No group has claimed responsibility for Saturday’s blast.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani issued a statement condemning the attack, blaming the Taliban even as the group denied it. He offered no proof.

“The Taliban, by escalating their illegitimate war and violence, have once again shown that they are not only reluctant to resolve the current crisis peacefully and fundamentally, but by complicating the situation,” Ghani said.

The Taliban condemned the attack, apparently aimed at civilians, and denied any responsibility.

It took place in a neighbourhood that has frequently been attacked by ISIL (ISIS) fighters over the years.

Al Jazeera’s Filio Kontrafouri, reporting from Kabul, said the attack happened about 5:30pm Kabul time (13:00 GMT).

“This is the time when students were finishing their classes, and were heading home, and we are talking about hundreds of students attending schools at that time,” she said.

Source: Al Jazeera news 

BDST: 1332 HRS, May 9, 2021
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