20 Afghan civilians injured in explosion outside mosque

Kabul, May 4 (IANS) Twenty civilians were injured in a hand grenade explosion outside a mosque in Afghanistan’s Paktika province, police said on Monday.

“The incident occurred when Ramzan night prayers were underway in a mosque in Mohammad Hassan village, Khair Kot district at 8 p.m. on Sunday,” a police spokesman told Xinhua news agency.

The wounded were shifted to a district hospital and none of them suffered life-threatening injuries, the police official added.

The Taliban has denied involvement in the incident.

More than 500 civilians were killed and 760 others wounded due to the fighting in Afghanistan in the first three months of 2020, the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) announced late April.

The UNAMA attributed 55 per cent of civilian casualties to the Taliban and other insurgent groups, 32 per cent to security forces over the period while the rest were caused by other reasons.

The UNAMA urged the government and anti-government elements to do more to protect civilians from harm, especially in view of the looming threat posed to all Afghans by the COVID-19 pandemic.

–IANS

ksk/