Kabul bombing: Afghanistan blames Pak-based Haqqani Network for suicide blast that left at least 90 dead
Kabul: A day after a suicide blast that left at least 90 dead, angry residents of Kabul were counting the cost of another brutal attack on their city and asking how it was allowed to happen.
The bombing, which struck Kabul’s diplomatic quarter during rush hour on Wednesday morning, came just a few days into the holy month of Ramadan, a time when families come together to celebrate.
Instead, relatives were burying the dead and tending the wounds of the 461 confirmed injured.
Most of the wounded were taken to the city’s three major hospitals, the emergency wards of which remain packed with those caught up in the massive blast. As doctors worked around the clock, hospitals sent out urgent calls for more blood to treat many with critical injuries.
By Thursday morning, Afghan security forces had cordoned off streets hundreds of meters from the site, and workers were busy filling in the crater left by the blast. Meanwhile, traffic around the secure zone had returned to its usual, snarled state.
Afghanistan’s intelligence service, the National Directorate of Security, issued a statement attributing blame to the Haqqani Network, a Taliban-affiliated group in Pakistan. It alleged the group had received help from ISI, the Pakistani intelligence service.
A spokesman for Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has told CNN the ministry will respond later Thursday.
