Joy turns to horror as bomber kills 63 at Kabul wedding
Kabul: Joy and celebration turned into horror and carnage when a suicide bomber targeted a packed Afghan wedding hall, killing at least 63 people in the deadliest attack to rock Kabul in months, officials and witnesses said Sunday.
The blast, which took place late Saturday in west Kabul, came as Washington and the Taliban finalise a deal to reduce the US military presence in Afghanistan and hopefully build a roadmap to a ceasefire.
The groom, who only gave his name as Mirwais, recalled greeting smiling guests in the afternoon, before seeing their bodies being carried out hours later.
The attack "changed my happiness to sorrow", Mirwais told local TV station Tolo News.
"My family, my bride are in shock, they cannot even speak. My bride keeps fainting," he said. "I lost my brother, I lost my friends, I lost my relatives. I will never see happiness in my life again."
Interior ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi said at least 63 people had been killed and 182 injured. "Among the wounded are women and children," Rahimi said. Earlier he stated that the blast was caused by a suicide bomber.
Afghan weddings are epic and vibrant affairs, with hundreds or often thousands of guests celebrating for hours inside industrial-scale wedding halls where the men are usually segregated from the women and children.
"The wedding guests were dancing and celebrating the party when the blast happened," recounted Munir Ahmad, 23, who was seriously injured and whose cousin was among the dead.
"Following the explosion, there was total chaos. Everyone was screaming and crying for their loved ones," he told AFP from his bed in a local hospital, where he is being treated for shrapnel wounds.
In the aftermath, images from inside the hall showed blood-stained bodies on the ground along with pieces of flesh and torn clothes, hats, sandals and bottles of mineral water.
Wedding guest Mohammad Farhag told AFP he was in the women's section when he heard a huge blast in the men's area. "Everyone ran outside shouting and crying," he said. "For about 20 minutes the hall was full of smoke. Almost everyone in the men's section is either dead or wounded." One guest who spoke to Tolo said some 1,200 people had been invited. The attack sent a wave of grief through a city grimly accustomed to atrocities.
President Ashraf Ghani called the incident a "barbaric attack", while Afghanistan's chief executive Abdullah Abdullah described it as a "crime against humanity".
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India lost a prominent public figure: President Murmu on Shivraj Patil's demise
New Delhi (PTI): President Droupadi Murmu on Friday condoled the death of former Union minister Shivraj Patil, saying the country has lost a prominent public figure.
Senior Congress leader and former Union home minister Patil passed away at his home in Maharashtra's Latur on Friday morning after a brief illness, family sources said. He was 90.
"In the demise of senior political leader Shri Shivraj Patil Ji, we have lost a prominent public figure. During his long public life, he held many important positions including those of Lok Sabha Speaker, Union Minister, Governor and longstanding Member of Parliament. My heartfelt condolences to his family, well-wishers and admirers," Murmu said in a post on X.
