At least 20 people were killed and 70 were left injured after two explosions (including a suicide attack) took place at a wrestling club in a Shi’ite locality in Kabul on Wednesday.
Reports from Reuters suggest that the responsibility for the attack in Dasht-e-Barchi was claimed by the Islamic state. The place houses many Shi’ite Muslims of the ethnic Hazara community who have often been a target to the militant Sunni group.
Najib Danish, the spokesperson of the interior ministry said that the first explosion was due to a suicide bomber and a car bomb blast soon followed.
Criticising the attack, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, as quoted by Al-Jazeera said, “An attack on civilians and media workers of the country is an attack on freedom of speech and crime against humanity.”
The second blast claimed the lives of a reporter and a cameraman from Tolo News and according to NAI, four other members of the local television were also left wounded. NAI is a group in Afghanistan which s a proponent of open media in Afghanistan.
The second blast took place at a time when the police were helping out victims, leaving several officers injured, said Hashmat Stanekzai, the spokesperson of the Kabul police.
Nine people from the media were killed and 16 other people lost their lives when two explosions were carried out in Kabul on April 30 earlier this year.
People who saw the attack took to social media to share their experience as hey said that the guards outside the club were killed by the suicide bomber, who then blew himself up when he went inside.
The bomber “detonated inside where a large number of athletes had gathered. There are a lot of dead and wounded,” wrote a witness on Facebook.
Earlier in August last year, an attack in front of an educational centre in Dasht-e-Barchi left at least 34 people killed.
Such attacks only goes to show that the Afghan capital of Kabul is in great danger ahead of the elections next month.