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Afghanistan in mourning after attack kills 52
PUL-I-KHUMRI, Afghanistan - Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Wednesday declared three days of national mourning after 52 people were killed, six of them lawmakers, in the countrys deadliest suicide bombing.Hundreds of people attended funerals for the dead in the rural town of Pul-i-Khumri, 150 kilometres (90 miles) north of Kabul, where the attacker targeted a crowd gathered Tuesday to welcome visiting parliamentarians. A military plane flew the bodies of the six MPs, including prominent opposition figure Mustafa Kazimi, back to the capital, where several government officials attended a ceremony. The parliamentarians, elected in 2005, four years after the removal of the Taliban government -- were to be given a state funeral on Thursday. Two other lawmakers were wounded, a grave-looking Karzai told a press conference, announcing the mourning period and ordering that all national flags be dropped to half-mast. Television stations abandoned normal programming to broadcast recitations from the Koran, religious music and analysis of the incident. The governor of northern Baghlan province, Alam Ishaqzy, said late Wednesday that the number of casualties had increased to 52 dead and 106 wounded from the previous toll of 41 dead and 80 wounded. Many of the casualties were children but the number was not yet clear. The national assembly accused the local government of not providing sufficient security for the visiting parliamentary delegation, who had been about to inspect a sugar factory on the outskirts of Pul-i-Khumri, the Baghlan capital. The small town, which has seen almost none of the Taliban-linked violence plaguing southern and eastern Afghanistan, was reeling after the attack. I only had one brother, said a weeping young man named Qais who was mourning the loss of his sibling. Taliban are not Muslims. If they were Muslims, they would not attack Muslims. Posted by: Steve White 2007-11-08 |
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