A suicide bomber targeted prayers for a prominent assassinated Afghan police chief on Friday, killing four policemen but another top officer escaped unharmed, officials said.
Eighteen other people were wounded in the attack in Kunduz city, capital of the province of the same name which has become a Taliban bastion in recent years and seen an increase in insurgent assaults.
Provincial government spokesman Mahboobullah Saeedi said the suicide bomber tried to enter a mosque where memorial prayers were taking place for general Mohammed Daoud Daoud, but policemen prevented him from getting inside.
“The target was the provincial police chief, but he is not hurt,” the spokesman added.
Samiullah Qatra’s predecessor as provincial police chief, Abdul Rahman Sayedkhaili, was himself killed on March 10 in a suicide attack in Kunduz claimed by the Taliban, the militia leading a nearly 10-year insurgency.
The provincial health chief, Doctor Zafar Noori, said the bodies of four policemen had been brought to the main hospital, while four civilians and 14 policemen had been wounded in the attack.
Saeedi had given an initial death toll of three with three wounded.
