Radio Free Afghanistan
April 26, 2021
An Afghan provincial governor says 16 people, mostly young boys and teenagers, were wounded after a rocket landed in his office compound in the eastern province of Kunar.
Governor Mohammad Iqbal Saeed told RFE/RL that the attack in the provincial capital, Asadabad, took place at 9:30 a.m. local time on April 26 as a Koran reciting competition was under way between Islamic religious school students.
He said that those wounded included 14 madrasah students and teachers, as well two security officers.
The wounded students were between the ages of 10 and 18, according to a local RFE/RL reporter.
Saeed said about 150 madrasah students and their teachers were gathered in a room during the attack.
No group has claimed responsibility, but the provincial governor blamed the Taliban.
Most of the districts in Kunar Province, which borders Pakistan, are controlled by the Taliban.
Afghan officials have accused the insurgents of targeting gathering of religious scholars and students in government-controlled areas in the past.
The Islamic State also regularly carries out targeted attacks.
Violence has continued across Afghanistan amid stalled intra-Afghan talks between Kabul and Taliban representatives in Qatar launched in September 2020.