32 killed in suicide attack on protesters in Afghanistan

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Kabul,   At least 32 people were killed and 128 wounded on Tuesday in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province following a devastating suicide bomb attack on protesters who were calling for the dismissal of a police commander.

The incident, the fourth attack to hit the region on Tuesday, took place around 1 p.m, when an insurgent detonated a bomb he was carrying in his vest in the Momand Darah district, said Attaullah Khogyanai, a spokesperson for the province’s governor.

The incident occurred on the highway that connects Jalalabad with the Torkham border pass between Afghanistan and Pakistan, where a protest against a local police commander from the neighbouring Achin province was being held, Efe news reported.

No group claimed responsibility for the attack.

This was the fourth attack of the day, after a 14-year-old died and four civilians were injured in three separate explosions near two girls’ schools in Nangarhar. Two other blasts took place in Bihsud district early morning.

Khogyanai said that the third attack took place in the capital’s police district 3, where one civilian sustained injuries.

In the past weeks, Nangarhar, the Islamic State terror organization’s bastion since it became active in the country in 2015, has faced a large number of attacks targeting elections, the government and civilians.

In late August, two people died and four were injured in a suicide attack during a protest near a provincial office of the Independent Election Commission of Afghanistan.