KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — An explosion at a market place in Afghanistan’s western Laghman province has killed two civilians and wounded 16, an official said on Thursday.
The blast took place in the Alisheng district in the late morning, when the market was packed with shoppers, according to Sarhadi Zwak, spokesman for the provincial governor.
In northern Sari Pul province, the governor’s spokesman Zabiullah Amani said that 17 people had been kidnapped by insurgents on Wednesday.
Negotiations were underway for their release, he said.
The abductees were all either Shiite Muslims or members of the Hazara minority, most of whom are Shiite, Amani said.
The United Nation’s assistance mission in Afghanistan said that 25 people had been abducted from two vehicles in the Sari Pul incident.
Four women and an elderly man had been released but the fate of the 20 others remains unknown, it said in a statement Thursday.
Several mass abductions have taken place in the past year, usually claimed by militants other than the Taliban, some of whom claim links to the Islamic State group.
The latest kidnapping follows a string of Taliban attacks on buses in Kunduz province this week, in which at least 35 people were abducted, and at least nine were killed.
UNAMA expressed concern at “the spate of abductions, hostage-taking and summary executions carried out in recent days against passengers travelling in civilian vehicles.”
Its head in Afghanistan, Nicholas Haysom, said: “Taking civilians hostage is indefensible. I call for the immediate and unconditional release of all civilians detained and a halt to this horrible practice.”
Adding to the violence, two Afghan men and a woman working for an international aid organization were shot dead in the Shekh Ali district of the northwestern Parwan province on Wednesday, according to the provincial police chief, Gen. Mohammad Aaman Mammorzai.
He blamed the Taliban and said that three people had been arrested. It was not immediately clear which organization the three worked for.
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