Afghanistan: Bomb Blast During Journalist Award Ceremony Leaves 1 Dead, 5 Injured In Mazar-e-Sharif, Says Report

A blast struck the capital of Afghanistan's northern Balkh province on Saturday, just days after an explosion claimed by the Islamic State murdered the area's governor.

Men shift a wounded man inside a hospital in Mazar-i-Sharif on March 9, 2023, following a suicide attack at the office of the Taliban governor of Afghanistan's Balkh province.

Source : AFP

A bomb exploded on Saturday during a journalist award ceremony in Afghanistan's Mazar-e-Sharif city, killing at least one person and injuring five others, news agency Associated Press (AP) reported citing a Taliban police spokesperson.

The incident occurred at the Tabian Farhang centre in Mazar-e Sharif, Balkh province's capital, around 11 am, as journalists gathered for the award ceremony, according to Mohammad Asif Waziri, the Taliban-appointed spokesman for Balkh police, as stated in the report. 

The blast comes just two days after a bomb in Mazar-e-Sharif killed the province governor, Daud Muzmal, and two other people. Four people were injured, according to the report. 

As per the report, the identity of the person killed in Saturday's explosion was not immediately revealed, but journalists were among the five injured. Najeeb Faryad, a reporter for Aryana News television channel, said he felt something hit him in the back, followed by a thunderous boom before collapsing, the report added. 

No one has immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. Still, the Islamic State group's regional affiliate, known as the Islamic State in Khorasan Province, is a primary foe of the Taliban.

After the Taliban took control of the country in August 2021, the militant group upped its attacks in Afghanistan. Taliban patrols and members of Afghanistan's Shiite minority have been targeted.

A retired American Marine spoke before Congress earlier this week about the impending withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. He described the withdrawal of US forces from Kabul as a "catastrophe," according to the BBC.

As per the report, he described a period of complete pandemonium in the days following the Taliban's conquest of Kabul. On August 26, 2021, Sgt Tyler Vargas-Andrews was one among numerous US military officers charged with protecting Kabul's airport when two suicide bombers attacked. The bombing killed 13 US servicemen and 170 Afghan civilians.

(With Inputs From Agencies)