At least 14 people killed across Afghanistan in attacks

Kabul, April 25 (RHC)-- At least 14 people have been killed in terrorist attacks across Afghanistan’s provinces of Kabul, Ghazni, and Kandahar in the past 24 hours.  On Saturday morning, unidentified assailants killed four policemen in Panja Chinar area of the capital Kabul and a university lecturer as he was on the way to the university in Kabul’s District 4, said police spokesman Ferdows Faramarz.  He added that a government employee was also killed by an armed man in the Rishkhor area of District 7 on Friday evening.

Targeted killings are on the rise in Kabul, where security forces, government employees, activists, and journalists often fall victim.   Separately on Saturday, at least four civilians lost their lives and several others were wounded in the explosion of a roadside bomb in the southeastern province of Ghazni, the provincial governor’s office said in a statement, stressing that the explosive device had been planted by Taliban militants.

In the southern province of Kandahar, at least four civilians were killed in another roadside bomb blast in Arghandab district on Friday afternoon.

Last week, the United Nations said in a report that civilian casualties in Afghanistan rose by 29 percent in the first quarter of the year.  “Of particular concern is the 37-percent increase in the number of women killed and injured, and a 23-percent increase in child casualties compared with the first quarter of 2020,” the report added.

Both the Afghan government and the Taliban accuse each other of targeting civilians, but facts on the ground show that terrorist groups such as Daesh and Taliban are to blame.