Email
A suicide bomber killed at least 45 people when he attacked a crowd of spectators at a volleyball match in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday. The attack, which wounded 60 more, took place in a village in Yahyakhail district in Paktika province, one of the most unstable areas in the country.
The bomber entered a large crowd, wearing a belt with explosives, and blew himself up in the middle of spectators and players, said Mokhles Afghan, spokesperson for the governor of Paktika. The match was part of a youth tournament between three districts of Paktika, and as a result most casualties were young people.
“There were no checkpoints, and that is the reason the suicide attacker could enter this area,” he said.
According to Bahawul Khan, a member of Paktika’s provincial council, there were also eight members of the local police among the dead.
The attack happened at 5pm, when the local health clinic was closed, so all the wounded had to be transferred to the hospital in the provincial capital Sharana, said Ali Khan, provincial head of public health.
Hours before the attack, the lower house of the Afghan parliament, the Wolesi Jirga, ratified security agreements signed in late September by the new Afghan government, the US and Nato, allowing foreign troops to remain in the country after 2014.
Armed opposition groups in Afghanistan are vehemently opposed to the security agreements, which Ashraf Ghani ordered his security adviser Hanif Atmar to sign on 30 September, in one of his first acts as president. The upper house of parliament has yet to ratify the deals.
The attack emphasises the challenge the president faces tackling an insurgency that has flared up over the past months. As foreign troops withdraw, Taliban militants have intensified assaults on government troops, particularly in provinces in the east and south.
Paktika has born the brunt of the attacks. Bordering some of Pakistan’s volatile tribal areas, the province is rife with insurgent activity, including from the Pakistan-based Haqqani network. In July a suicide attacker detonated a car bomb at a busy market square in Urgon district, killing at least 42 people.
According to western security officials, the threat of attacks and kidnappings in eastern Afghanistan increased when the Afghan intelligence service captured two senior Haqqani leaders in the neighbouring Khost province a month ago.
On Sunday evening, however, no group had taken responsibility for today’s attack.
