The death toll in a suicide bombing among a group of people protesting a local police commander in eastern Afghanistan has risen to 68

(KABUL, Afghanistan) — The death toll in a suicide bombing among a group of people protesting a local police commander in eastern Afghanistan has risen to 68, up from 32, provincial officials Wednesday. Another 165 were wounded in the blast — one of the deadliest attacks this year — yesterday in the eastern province of Nangarhar, provincial governor spokesman Ataullah Khogyani said. Scores of demonstrators had blocked the highway between the provincial capital of Jalalabad and a major Pakistan border crossing in protest over the appointment of a local police chief when the suicide bomber blew himself up. No any other group immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, but both Taliban insurgents and the Islamic State group are active in eastern Afghanistan, especially in Nangarhar province. The attack was one of the worst in Afghanistan for months but security officials have warned that similar attacks are likely if crowds gather for campaign rallies ahead of parliamentary elections in October. Nangarhar province, which is on Afghanistan’s border with Pakistan, has been among the country’s most volatile regions this year. “The bombings of schools and the killing of children are among the most egregious and repulsive acts of terrorism which violate international humanitarian law.”

This was the deadliest attack in the country since a bomb planted in an ambulance in Kabul killed 103 people in January.
The death toll from yesterday's suicide attack on protesters in eastern Afghanistan rises to 68.