A suicide bomber killed at least 25 people, including Taliban security forces on Tuesday outside a Kabul Bank branch in northern Afghanistan’s city of Kunduz province.
Local sources said that nearly 40 others received injuries after a suicide bomber detonated his explosive at around 8:40 am local time when government employees approached the bank to receive their salaries.
Most of the killed and wounded individuals are Taliban members. Zakaryia, a Taliban security commander for Kunduz Police District 4, is also among the dead, sources confirmed to Harici.
Meanwhile, Kunduz police said that five people, both civilians and Taliban members, were killed and seven others were wounded in the incident. The police confirmed it was a suicide bombing.
A police source said that the bodies of those killed have been shifted to the Taliban’s 217 Omari Corps Clinic.
Mohammad Shahab Salarzai, a professor at Kunduz University was also among those killed, his relatives confirmed to Harici. Salarzai went to the Bank to get his new banking card.
No group, including Daesh which claimed responsibility for such attacks in the past, claimed responsibility for the attack so far.
The attack comes a day after the United Nations counterterrorism officials warned that IS-K continues to pose a significant threat to regional and global security.
Since the return of the Taliban in power in 15 August 2021, Daesh openly announced its enmity with Taliban regime and carried out several deadly attacks. Daesh routinely targeted Taliban leaders, religious clerics and also members of the Shitte community in Kunduz and across Afghanistan.
In rare attack last month, Daesh killed a Chinese mining company official in Takhar province and in December, Daesh suicide bomber killed Khalilur Rahman Haqqani, the Taliban’s minister of refugees.
Meanwhile, Taliban officials have consistently downplayed the activities of Daesh in Afghanistan and claimed their security forces have eliminated them and no longer Daesh pose threat to the country or beyond.
