GARDA SERAI, Afghanistan (AP) — Thousands of people attended the funeral Thursday of a Taliban minister killed in a Kabul suicide bombing claimed by the Islamic State group.
The funeral for Khalil Haqqani, the minister for refugees and repatriation, was held in eastern Afghanistan’s Paktia province. The Cabinet member was the most high-profile casualty of an assault in the country since the Taliban seized power three years ago.
The minister died in a blast Wednesday at his ministry in the Afghan capital, along with five others.
He was the uncle of Sirajuddin Haqqani, the acting interior minister and the leader of a powerful faction within the Taliban. The U.S. placed a bounty on both their heads.
Tight security was in place for the high-ranking officials attending the funeral, including Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi and Deputy Prime Minister Maulvi Abdul Kabir.
Armed men guarded the coffin, which was draped in the Taliban flag, and loudspeakers broadcast sermons and eulogies. Local and international media were invited to cover the funeral in Garda Serai district, Paktia.
In a statement carried by the Amaq News Agency, the Islamic State Khorasan Province — an affiliate of the Islamic State group — said that one of its fighters carried out the suicide bombing. The fighter waited for Haqqani to leave his office and then detonated his device, according to the statement.
An official from Paktia, the Haqqanis’ heartland, gave a different account of what happened. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.
The assailant was able to gain access to the ministry despite setting off an alarm on the body scanner because he told the guard he had metal plates in his hands, the official said. He also claimed he was a refugee.
The official added that Haqqani made time for refugees and people with disabilities who come to see him at work because he was sympathetic to their plight.
He was approaching the ministry after praying in the compound’s mosque when the assailant detonated the bomb, the official added.
The U.N. 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 said on X.
Neighboring Pakistan has also expressed its shock. Mohammad Sadiq, the special representative for Afghanistan, wrote on X on Wednesday that the government stood in solidarity with Afghanistan and reiterated its commitment to work with Afghanistan in fighting the “menace of terrorism.”
The IS group’s affiliate, a major rival of the ruling Taliban, has previously carried out bombings across Afghanistan.
But suicide attacks have become rare since the Taliban seized power in August 2021 and U.S. and NATO forces withdrew. Such assaults have mostly targeted minority Shiite Muslims, especially in the capital.
___
Munir Ahmed contributed to this report from Islamabad.