Foreign Office condemns bomb blasts in Afghanistan's mosque

ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office has condemned the multiple bomb explosions targeting a mosque in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province during Friday prayers that killed at least 62 and wounding more than 100 people yesterday, the spokesperson said.

The FO spokesperson Dr Mohammad Faisal said in a statement that Islamabad shares the grief of the bereaved families and offers deepest sympathies and condolences over their loss in this mindless act of terrorism.

The Foreign Office spokesperson said, “Our prayers are with the victims and their loved ones in this difficult time.”

Earlier, multiple explosions at a mosque in eastern Afghanistan collapsed the roof on worshippers during Friday prayers, killing at least 62 and wounding more than 100, officials said.

Attaullah Khogyani, the spokesman for Nangarhar province’s governor, said bombs had been placed inside the mosque in the Jawdara area of Haska Mena district.

“People using an excavator are still working to bring out the bodies and injured from under the roof,” said Sohrab Qaderi, a member of the provincial council in Nangarhar, adding that the death toll was likely to rise.

Malik Mohammadi Gul Shinwari, a tribal elder from the area, said that the mosque had been destroyed. “It was a heartbreaking scene I witnessed,” Shinwari said.

Sediq Sediqqi, a spokesman for the presidential palace, condemned what he said was a suicide bomb attack.