Bomb planted in Afghanistan graveyard kills 14

KABUL, Afghanistan — A bomb planted in a graveyard in rural eastern Afghanistan killed 14 members of a single family on Thursday, even as the country’s president urged the Taliban to lay down their arms.

The attack took place in Nangarhar province’s Ghani Khel district and all 14 killed — seven women and seven children — were members of the same extended family, said Masum Khan Hashimi, the province’s deputy police chief. Three family members were also wounded in the attack, he said, adding that an investigation was underway.

The family gathered to mark the start of a major Muslim holiday, the Eid al-Fitr at the end of the holy month of Ramadan, with a visit to the tomb of a relative. In Afghanistan, it is customary for families to visit the graves of loved ones on holidays.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing.

Mashoq Malam, the chief official in Ghani Khel, said it was unclear why someone had planted the remote-controlled bomb at the family graveside. The entombed man had worked for a security company and was killed about eight months ago by the Taliban, Malam said.

The dead man’s brother, Haji Ghalib, who said his daughter was among those killed Thursday, blamed the Taliban for the attack. Ghalib, who was not with his family when the bombing happened, said over the telephone that he too worked at a security company and was a member of a local peace council seeking to reconcile with the insurgents.

“My family is finished. These people are inhuman,” he said.

President Hamid Karzai condemned the bombing, denouncing it in a statement as “a cowardly act by the enemies of the people of Afghanistan who are not part of any religion.”

“They even attack in a Muslim cemetery on the start of Eid, they kill our innocent countrymen,” Karzai said.

Earlier, in a speech after attending prayers in Kabul for the holiday, Karzai urged the Taliban to lay down their arms, join the political process and stop killing innocent civilians.

“Tens of our innocent Afghans, including mothers and sons, died by the mines planted on the roadsides by the enemy,” he said. “From one side of Afghanistan to the other, people gave their lives because of the mines and terrorist activity.”

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