Kabul 2 September : At at least 20 people, including a prominent clergyman was killed as well as 22 other people wounded the previous day in an explosion in front of the mosque in Afghanistan’s Herat city, local media reported.Some photos shared on social media show a variety of bloody corpses lying on an image of destruction outside the mosque complex in the western part of Afghan city The BBC reported.
Mujib Rahman Ansari the chief cleric of the mosque was killed in the blast.
“Unfortunately the country’s most well-known theologian Mawlawi Mujib Rahman Ansari was been killed in an act of cowardice during prayer service on Friday in Herat,” a Taliban spokesperson tweeted.
It’s not known who is behind this attack which the Taliban condemned as “sinister” and “cowardly” the BBC reported.
The murder is the most recent in the series of murders of prominent pro-Taliban leaders in the nation.
Police say that Ansari arrived at Gazargah mosque to lead Friday’s noon prayer when an unidentified suicide attacker kissed the cleric’s hand , and ignited an explosive device.
The clergyman was well-known in Afghanistan for his support of the Taliban’s rule.
The statement was made earlier in the summer, at a prayer gathering in Kabul, he called for those who have committed “the most insignificant act against the Islamic administration” to be executed.
akr/pgh
