A suicide bomber killed two persons including the Taliban governor of Afghanistan’s Balkh province at his office in the provincial capital Mazar-i-Sharif on Thursday even as two others were injured.
The Taliban governor identified as Mohammad Dawood Muzammil was known for fighting against the Islamic State (IS).
The killing comes a day after he met top officials of the Taliban government who were visiting from Kabul.
Since the Taliban took over power in August 2021, violence across Afghanistan has dramatically dropped but the attacks by IS against the Taliban have and intensified deteriorated.
“Two people, including Mohammad Dawood Muzammil, the governor of Balkh, have been killed in an explosion this morning,” a local police spokesperson, Asif Waziri, told AFP.
“It was a suicide attack. We don’t have information as to how the suicide bomber reached the office of the governor,” he said.
The Taliban government’s spokesperson, Zabihullah Mujahid, tweeted; “Muzammil was martyred in an explosion by the enemies of Islam.”
In January, at least 10 people were killed by a suicide bomber near the foreign ministry in Kabul, an attack claimed by IS.