At least 19 people were injured when a powerful bomb exploded during Friday prayers in a mosque in eastern Afghanistan, the Pajhwok news agency reported.
The blast took place in a mosque in Chaparhar, the center of an eponymous district with predominantly Pashtun population in Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar Province. Eyewitnesses said the imam of the mosque was seriously injured.
According to the republic’s health ministry, 19 people were rushed to a hospital in the provincial capital Jalalabad. Nine were discharged after receiving first medical aid.
Fazel Hadi Moslimyar, speaker of the Afghan senate, blamed the blast on Taliban militants, but the Taliban’s press service has made no comments so far.
This is second mosque blast in Afghanistan in less than a week. On July 30, at least five people, including a local judge, were killed when an explosive device went off at a mosque in Afghanistan’s southern Uruzgan province.
