FUNERAL ARRANGEMENTS: Security was bolstered after Cabinet member Khalil Haqqani was killed in an explosion on Wednesday at the ministry for refugees
AP
Tight security measures were in place yesterday for a Taliban minister’s funeral in Afghanistan after he was killed in a suicide bombing claimed by an affiliate of the Islamic State group.
Cabinet member Khalil Haqqani was the most high-profile casualty of an assault in the country since the Taliban seized power three years ago.
He died in a blast on Wednesday at the Afghan Ministry for Refugees and Repatriation in the capital, Kabul, along with several other people.
Taliban security personnel stand guard in Kabul on Wednesday.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Officials have not given the latest toll for the dead and injured.
Haqqani was the uncle of Afghan acting Minister of the Interior Sirajuddin Haqqani, who is the leader of a faction within the Taliban.
The US placed a bounty on both their heads.
In a statement carried by the Amaq news agency, the Islamic State affiliate said that one of its fighters carried out the suicide bombing.
The fighter waited for Khalil Haqqani to leave his office and then detonated his device, the statement said.
The funeral was in Garda Serai district, eastern Paktia province, which is the heartland of the Haqqani family.
Deputy government spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat said that top officials were to attend and security measures were in place.
A video purportedly from the scene of the funeral showed a vast but empty patch of land with a row of guards and armored vehicles on one side. A fire truck was on standby.
The UN Mission in Afghanistan was among those to condemn the ministry attack.
“There can be no place for terrorism in the quest for stability,” the mission wrote on X.
The Islamic State group’s affiliate, a major rival of the ruling Taliban, has previously carried out bombings across Afghanistan.
