Kabul Blasts: 80 Dead, Hundreds Injured, ISIS Takes Responsibility

Two suicide bombers hit a large demonstration by members of Afghanistan’s Hazara minority in Kabul on Saturday.

Two explosions occurred on Saturday afternoon around the Dehmazang Circle in Kabul city. (Photo: AP)

A suicide bomber hit a large demonstration by members of Afghanistan’s Hazara minority in Kabul on Saturday, killing at least 80 people and leaving over 200 injured, officials told TOLONews. The blast occurred in the Dehmazang Circle area of Kabul.

ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack, Amaq news agency informed.

One suicide bomber had been wearing a burqa and detonated explosives while standing among demonstrators, an eyewitness told TOLONews.

Photographs posted on social media showed bodies, apparently at the site of the explosion, close to where thousands of people had been protesting over the route of a planned multi-million dollar power line. Violence had been feared at what was the second demonstration by Hazaras over the power line issue.

President Ashraf Ghani released a statement condemning the blast. “Peaceful demonstrations are the right of every citizen of Afghanistan and the government will do everything it can to provide them with security,” Ghani said.

Such attacks are a reminder that the conflict in Afghanistan is not winding down, as some believe, but escalating, with consequences for the human rights situation in the country that should alarm us all.

Champa Patel, Director, Amnesty South Asia

A wall is marked with hand prints in blood after a deadly explosion struck a protest march by ethnic Hazaras, in Kabul, Afghanistan. (Photo: AP)

The controversial project will have a new power line run from Turkmenistan through Salang to Kabul. The TUTAP line is backed by the Asian Development Bank with involvement of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Afghans help a man who was injured in the deadly explosion. (Photo: AP)

The original plan routed the line through Bamiyan province, in the central highlands, where most of the country’s Hazaras live. That route was changed in 2013 by the previous Afghan government. Leaders of the marches have said that the rerouting was evidence of bias against the Hazara community.

Afghanistan is desperately short of power, with less than 40 percent of the population connected to the national grid, according to the World Bank. Almost 75 percent of electricity is imported.

A shoe and a hat remain at the scene of a deadly explosion that struck a protest march by ethnic Hazaras, in Kabul, Afghanistan. (Photo: AP)

(With inputs from Reuters and AP)

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