Afghan Police (file photo)
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
July 16, 2018
Afghan police say they have shot and killed a suspected suicide bomber as he approached a demonstration in the capital Kabul.
Police spokesman Hashmat Stanekzai said the suspect was shot by police near a gathering in the Shar-e Naw park in Kabul’s main business area on July 16, adding that the man was apprehended but died of his wounds.
Police said the suspect’s target was a protest urging authorities to allow exiled Vice President Abdul Rashid Dostum to return to Afghanistan from Turkey, where he fled last year after he was accused of being involved in the rape and torture of a political rival.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani hinted on July 15 that Dostum might soon return to Afghanistan.
The incident came after seven people were killed and 15 others wounded in a suicide bombing in front of the Rural Rehabilitation and Development Ministry in Kabul in an attack that was claimed by the Islamic State (IS) extremist group.
Elsewhere, the Taliban attacked a police checkpoint in the Ghani Khel district of eastern Nangarhar Province on July 16, killing seven police, the provincial governor’s office said in a statement.
Based on reporting by AP and dpa