ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Thursday strongly condemned a car bomb explosion close to a bank branch in Afghanistan’s southern Helmand province, resulting in loss and injuries of many innocent lives.
Afghan officials say at least 29 people, including military personnel, who gathered at the Kabul Bank branch to draw their salaries ahead of the Muslim festival of Eidul Fitr were killed in the car bomb blast. Nearly 50 others were wounded.
“The people and government of Pakistan extend their heartfelt sympathies and deepest condolences to the government and the people of Afghanistan and the bereaved families,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
“While reiterating condemnation of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, we pray for early recovery of the injured. We firmly stand with our Afghan brothers in this hour of grief and anguish,” the statement said.
No group has claimed responsibility for the brazen attack, but it comes as the Taliban ramp up their nationwide spring offensive despite government calls for a ceasefire during Ramzan.
For years Helmand province, of which Lashkar Gah is the capital, was the centrepiece of the Western military intervention in Afghanistan, but it has recently slipped deeper into a quagmire of instability.
The insurgents control vast swathes of the province, blighted by a huge opium harvest that helps fund the insurgency, and have repeatedly threatened to seize Lashkar Gah.
The Taliban effectively control or contest 10 of the 14 districts in Helmand, the deadliest province for British and US troops over the past decade.
Intensified fighting last year forced thousands of people to flee to Lashkar Gah from neighbouring districts.
