JALALABAD: At least three people were killed and 15 wounded on Friday by a blast at a mosque in Afghanistan’s restive Nangarhar province, a hotbed of activity of the militant Islamic State (IS), officials said.

The blast — for which no group immediately claimed responsibility — underscores one of the many challenges facing the new Taliban regime in Afghanistan, with the UN warning the country is also on the brink of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

The explosion took place during Friday prayers in Spin Ghar district of the eastern province, near the border with Pakistan.

UN says Afghanistan on brink of world’s worst humanitarian crisis

“I can confirm a blast during Friday prayers inside a mosque in Spin Ghar district. There are casualties and fatalities,” a Taliban official said.

Walli Mohammed, a local elder and activist, said a bomb appeared to have been hidden in a loudspeaker near the imam’s rostrum.

When the speaker was switched on to recite the azaan, the device detonated, he said.

“So far three killed, 15 wounded,” a doctor at the local hospital said.

The militant Islamic State-Khorasan, the local branch of IS, first emerged in Nangarhar and was formally recognised by the group’s central leadership in 2015.

The group had a relatively small but potent presence in Afghanistan, and was responsible for some of the deadliest attacks in the country in recent years, massacring civilians at mosques, shrines, public squares and even hospitals.

But it failed to hold any territory in the region, suffering huge losses because of Taliban and US-led military operations.

Since the Taliban’s return to power in August, IS has claimed responsibility for a series of bloody attacks, including one at Kabul airport as the US and other countries rushed to evacuate their citizens and Afghan allies from the country.

Among the scores killed were 13 US soldiers, the worst single-day loss for the Pentagon in Afghanistan since 2011.

In one of the most recent attacks, IS fighters raided the Kabul National Military Hospital in early November, killing at least 19 people and injuring more than 50.

The Taliban face IS-K with very little outside assistance, and none of the sophisticated intelligence gathering and surveillance deployed by foreign militaries.

But experts say they know their enemy and the terrain, and can draw on groups such as Al Qaeda and the feared Haqqani network to challenge the group.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid recently dismissed them as “not a great threat”.

The security challenge comes as the United Nations has repeatedly warned that Afghanistan is on the brink of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

More than half the country faces “acute” food shortages, with the impending winter forcing millions to choose between migration and starvation.

Published in Dawn, November 13th, 2021