19 killed as suicide bomber targets protesters in Afghanistan
Kabul, Sep 11: At least 19 people were killed and 57 wounded on Tuesday in Afghanistan's Nangarhar province in a suicide 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, spokesperson for Nangarhar governor.
"So far 19 martyred and 57 injured in suicide attack," Inamullah Myakhil, spokesman for Nangarhar Public Health Department told Efe news.
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.
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 Behsud district early morning.
Khogyanai said that the third attack took place in the police district 3 of the capital where one civilian sustained injuries.
In the past weeks, Nangarhar, the bastion of the Islamic State terror organization 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.
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Bridge portion collapses on Jammu outskirts; 3-4 labourers feared trapped, 1 rescued
Jammu (PTI): A portion of a small bridge collapsed in the Bantalab area on the outskirts of Jammu city on Friday, trapping at least three to four labourers under the debris, while one injured worker was rescued, official sources said.
Authorities have closed the road link following the collapse of the portion of the bridge.
The incident occurred when labourers were carrying out repair work on a retaining wall near the bridge that was damaged in last year's flash floods, the sources said.
According to the sources, a section of the bridge suddenly gave way, burying workers engaged at the site under the rubble.
Police, Army and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) teams launched rescue operations to extricate those buried under the debris. They pulled out one injured labourer and shifted him to a hospital, the sources said.
Family members of the labourers present at the site said around six workers engaged at the site at the time of the incident came under the debris when the structure collapsed. The family members said while two of the labourers managed to escape, four got trapped.
The sources said those trapped included the husband of a woman labourer, a mason, an unmarried labourer and a relative of the contractor.
There was no official confirmation on the exact number of persons trapped under the debris till the filing of this report.
The rescue operations are ongoing.
