India condemns terror attack in Afghanistan

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday condemned "most strongly" the terror attack earlier in the day in Kandahar, Afghanistan, that claimed the lives of three top provincial officials.

"Deeply shocked and saddened by the dastardly terrorist attack in Kandahar," the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) tweeted quoting Modi.

"India condemns it most strongly and mourns with our Afghan brethren the loss of life, including that of Kandahar's senior leadership," Modi said.

"We stand in solidarity with the brave people of Afghanistan in fighting terrorism imposed on them," he added.

Abdul Raziq, police chief of Kandahar, and Momin Khan, head of the intelligence department, were killed on the spot in a shooting at a meeting attended by Afghan and US officials in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar while the provincial Governor Zulmay Weesa died from serious wounds in a hospital.

Raziq was a key anti-Taliban figure in southern Afghanistan and he had escaped over two dozen direct attacks and suicide bomb blasts in the past, the source said.

The shooter, who served as the Governor's bodyguard, was also killed in the incident.

Austin Scott Miller, top US-NATO commander in Afghanistan, escaped unhurt, but three US soldiers and several other people were injured in the attack, claimed by the Taliban insurgent group.

--IANS

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