KABUL: Five women and a child were killed when a bus carrying Afghan government employees was hit by a bomb in the capital, officials said on Tuesday.

The blast ripped through the vehicle during evening rush hour in Kabul on Monday, with government ministries giving conflicting casualty figures.

“Unfortunately, five women were killed and 17 wounded in yesterday’s attack,” Nasratullah Naseri, a spokesman for the telecoms ministry, said, adding that the blast was possibly caused by a “sticky bomb” attached to the side of the bus where women were sat.

The education ministry said three women and a child were killed, while police said five people died. Civil servants who are mothers often travel to work with their young children, dropping them off at government-run creches.

No one has claimed responsibility for Monday’s blast, and there was no comment from the Taliban.

On Tuesday, gunmen with heavy arms attacked a bus carrying students and teachers of Baghlan University in northern Afghanistan. “A student and the driver were killed, and six teachers were wounded,” Abdul Qadir Mahan, dean of Baghlan University, said.

Two blasts ripped through vehicles in Kabul on Sunday, killing three and wounding more than a dozen, police said.Gunmen opened fire at a minibus belonging to a university in northern Afghanistan on Tuesday, killing at least two people and wounding six, a provincial official said.

Jawed Basharat, spokesman for the police chief in Baghlan province, said a student and the driver of the minibus were killed in the attack, which took place on the outskirts of Puli Khomri, the provincial capital. The wounded were all university lecturers.

The bus was carrying students and teachers from the faculty of agriculture and was travelling to the university, Basharat said. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack but Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, said the militant group was not involved in it.In western Herat province, insurgents on Tuesday morning stormed a police outpost on the Pashdan Dam, killing three members of the Afghan security forces, said Wahid Qatali, the province’s governor. The dam on the Hari River is still under construction.

Qatali added that four security personnel were wounded in the attack, for which he blamed the Taliban. There was no immediate response from the insurgents.

Violence has surged in Afghanistan in recent months — including a wave of assassinations against journalists, activists and civil servants — despite peace talks between the Afghan government and Taliban.

Published in Dawn, March 17th, 2021