November 08, 2007	Thursday	Shawwal 26, 1428

BAGHLAN (Afghanistan): Afghans began three days of mourning on Wednesday for 52 people, many of them children, killed in the country’s worst suicide attack. The blast, in the relatively peaceful north, has shaken public confidence in the ability of the government and the 50,000 foreign troops in the country to provide security more than six years after the Taliban were ousted from power.

“In the very miserable incident which took place yesterday, six of Afghanistan’s hard-working, honest members of parliament were martyred, and Afghan people including school teachers, students and children were also martyred, and many were wounded,” President Hamid Karzai told a news conference in Kabul.

The governor of Baghlan where the attack took place said the death toll had risen to 52 and about 100 people were wounded.

The Taliban have carried out more than 130 suicide bombings in Afghanistan so far this year, but the insurgents denied responsibility for Tuesday’s attack on visiting parliamentarians as they were being greeted by schoolchildren and elders.

The bomber approached the parliamentary delegation on foot as children lined up to welcome them on a visit to a sugar factory in Baghlan. Large crowds had also turned out to see the deputies.

Some of the dead and wounded appeared to have suffered bullet wounds and some residents said Afghan security forces began shooting wildly after the blast.

“This attack was carried out by the Taliban, but only 10 people were killed by the blast. The rest of the victims are from gunfire from the security forces,” said Abdul Qadir, pointing to what appeared to be a bullet hole in his dead son’s neck.Other Baghlan residents made similar charges.

A Taliban spokesman said the insurgents were not behind Tuesday’s attack. The rebels usually distance themselves from attacks that largely kill civilians.

As often happens after suicide attacks, many ordinary Afghans blamed the government for failing to prevent the bloodshed.

Northern Afghanistan has been relatively peaceful and prosperous compared with the south and east, where Taliban suicide attacks are all too common and insurgents are locked in almost daily battles with Afghan and foreign forces.

Nato commanders say the Taliban are not a unified organisation, but a number of factions operating under loose guidelines handed down from a governing council. Al Qaeda and at least one other insurgent group are also active in Afghanistan.

—Reuters