KABUL: Seventeen people were killed in a car bomb explosion in Afghanistan on Thursday as crowds shopped on the eve of Eidul Azha.

“Seventeen bodies and 21 wounded people were brought to our hospital,” Sediqullah, a doctor at a hospital in the city of Pul-i-Alam in Logar province, said.

The interior ministry confirmed the blast, which came on the eve of a three-day ceasefire between the Taliban and Kabul.

“It was a suicide car bomb in a crowded place where our people were shopping for Eid,” Dedar Lawang, a spokesman for Logar’s governor, said. The explosion occurred near the governor’s office, said Jamshed Ahmad, a student at the site of the blast.

Published in Dawn, July 31st, 2020