The Taliban governor of Afghanistan’s Balkh province, known for fighting against IS militants, was killed in a suicide attack at his office on Thursday, officials said.
The killing, a day after he met top government officials visiting from Kabul, makes Mohammad Dawood Muzammil one of the highest-ranking figures slain since the Taliban stormed back to power in 2021.
“Two people, including Mohammad Dawood Muzammil, the governor of Balkh, have been killed in an explosion this morning,” local police spokesman Asif Waziri told AFP, adding that the blast happened on the second floor of his office, in the provincial capital Mazar-i-Sharif.
“It was a suicide attack. We don’t have information as to how the suicide bomber reached the office of the governor,” he said, adding that two people were also wounded.
The explosion happened moments after the governor arrived in his office, said Khairuddin, who was wounded in the incident and in a hospital in Mazar-i-Sharif. “There was a bang. I fell on the ground,” he told AFP.
Authorities deployed extra security at the governorate, who forbade journalists from taking photos, an AFP correspondent reported from near the site of the blast. Muzammil was “martyred in an explosion by the enemies of Islam”, tweeted government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid.
Muzammil was initially appointed governor of the eastern province of Nangarhar, where he led the fight against IS militants, before being moved to Balkh last year.
Jamaat ul Ahrar, a militant outfit Thursday accepted responsibility for the suicide bomb blast that killed Governor of Balkh province in Afghanistan Mulla Mohammad Dawood Muzammil , said a spokesman of Tehreek e Taliban Pakistan. Seven people including the governor were killed and nine others were injured in the bomb blast. Mulla Dawood was the leading figure of Taliban. The Jamaat ul Ahrar had differences with the governor over the rule in the Balkh province. The Jamaat also has its differences with Daesh which had created further insecurity in Afghanistan. Pakistan condemned this latest act of terrorism.