A bomb attached to a packed minivan exploded in Afghanistan’s western Herat Province on Saturday, killing at least seven civilians and injuring nine, Taliban officials said.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the explosion, but the Islamic State group has claimed credit for similar attacks on civilians and the country’s new Taliban leaders elsewhere in the country since the group seized power on Aug. 15 last year.
Saturday’s bombing was the first such attack in Herat.
Photo: AFP / Afghan Taliban
Local Taliban official Naeemulhaq Haqqani said that investigations were ongoing.
A Taliban intelligence official in western Herat told The Associated Press that the bomb was attached to the van’s fuel tank.
He spoke on condition of anonymity, as he was not authorized to release the information to the public.
Herat ambulance head Ebrahim Mohammadi said that the victims — including three in critical condition — were transferred to the provincial hospital.
Since its return to power, the Taliban have imposed widespread restrictions, many of them directed at women.
The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) on Saturday called on the Taliban to find two women rights advocates — Tamana Zaryab Paryani and Parawana Ibrahimkhel — who disappeared from Kabul on Wednesday.
“We urge Taliban to provide information on their whereabouts & to protect rights of all Afghans,” UNAMA wrote on Twitter.
The Taliban has denied any involvement in their disappearance.
An eyewitness said that at least 10 armed people claiming to be Taliban intelligence members broke into an apartment in Kabul on Wednesday, where they arrested Zaryab Paryani and her three sisters.
The women’s rights advocate posted a video on social media shortly before they were taken away, showing them frightened, breathless and screaming for help.
She said that Taliban fighters were banging on her door.
Paryani was among about 25 women who took part in an anti-Taliban protest earlier this month against the compulsory Islamic headscarf for women.
Separately, a Taliban delegation on Saturday arrived in Norway for three days of talks with Western diplomats and members of Afghan civil society, which it hopes would help “transform the atmosphere of war” in the country.
Footage broadcast by the Verdens Gang newspaper online showed a plane, chartered by the Norwegian government and carrying 15 Taliban representatives, landing in Oslo in the evening.
Headed by Afghan Minister of Foreign Affairs Amir Khan Muttaqi, the delegation is the first to hold official talks with the West on European soil since seizing power.
No country has yet recognized the Taliban’s government — notorious for human rights abuses during a first stint in power between 1996 and 2001 when they were ousted by a US-led invasion.
“The Islamic Emirate has taken steps for meeting the demands of the Western world, and we hope to strengthen our relations through diplomacy with all the countries, including European countries and the West in general,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told reporters.
The talks opened yesterday with Afghans from civil society, including women leaders and journalists, at a time when the freedoms of those living in Afghanistan are being increasingly curtailed.
Today, the Taliban delegates are to meet representatives from the US, France, the UK, Germany, Italy and the EU, while tomorrow is to be dedicated to bilateral talks with Norwegian officials.
The talks will focus on human rights and humanitarian aid as a poverty crisis deepens.
International aid came to a sudden halt and the US froze US$9.5 billion in Afghan central bank assets held overseas when the Taliban took over.
Hunger is threatening 23 million Afghans, or 55 percent of the population, the UN estimates.
“These meetings do not represent a legitimisation or recognition of the Taliban,” Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs Anniken Huitfeldt said on Friday. “But we must talk to the de facto authorities in the country. We cannot allow the political situation to lead to an even worse humanitarian disaster.”
Additional reporting by AFP
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