At least 35 Afghans dead in arms dump blast
Pakistan Times Monitoring Report

KABUL (Afghanistan): A massive explosion at a secret ammunition dump owned by a warlord in northern Afghanistan on Monday killed at least 35 people.

The explosion happened in the Khinjan district of Baghalan province, provincial police chief Fazeludin Ayar said. ‘There was a huge explosion at 6:00 am which killed at least 28 people and injured 13,’ he said.

The store belonged to one of Afghanistan’s numerous militia commanders, who was officially disarmed but still kept ammunition hidden, interior ministry spokesman Lutfullah Mashal said.

He confirmed that the blast had happened at an arms dump but was unable to say exactly how many had died.

‘It was a dreadful, massive explosion. The ammunition belonged to a militia commander who was disarmed and said he had no more weapons,’ Mashal added.

‘At least seven people have been severely wounded and taken to hospital and several dozen others are feared to have died or been injured.’

Investigators were at the site to determine the cause of the blast, police chief Ayar said.

Neither he nor the ministry spokesman could confirm whether the commander who owned the arms dump had died or been injured in the incident.

Huge stockpiles of weaponry and ammunition are still left over in Afghanistan after two-and-a-half decades of near-constant war.

Women Killed for working with Foreigners

Another report from Kabul says that suspected militants beat to death a mother and her two daughters in northern Afghanistan because they worked for a foreign reconstruction group, officials and a western security source said Monday.

The three women were employed at the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee, a microcredit organisation, in the northern province of Baghlan, the security source told a foreign news agency on condition of anonymity.

Their bodies were found Sunday with a letter attributed to a wing of the radical Hezb-e-Islami organisation, the source added.

The group is led by former premier Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who is on the US most wanted terror list.

“The letter said they had been murdered as retribution for working for non-governmental organisations and for their whoredom,” the source said.

Provincial police chief Fazeluding Ayar confirmed that the bodies of three women were found Sunday night and that they had been beaten to death.

Four Arrested

“We have arrested four men who are suspects in this brutal act. The investigation is ongoing,” he told.

The police chief named two of the victims as Mehboba and Bibi Shirin and said the third has yet to be identified.

The western security source said: “It was a mother and two daughters who all worked for Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee.”

Afghan interior ministry spokesman Lutfullah Mashal also confirmed the murders but could not say if the women were killed for working with foreign aid groups. “I can confirm that three women were found murdered in Baghalan province but it is yet to be known who killed them and why,” Mashal said.●