Triple Bomb Blasts Kill 50, Injure 170 in Kabul (+Photos)
KABUL (Tasnim) – At least 50 people were killed and scores of others injured after a string of bomb blasts hit the Afghan capital on Saturday.
According to Tasnim dispatches, three successive blasts rocked the busy district of Dehmazang in Kabul on Saturday as large groups of protesters, demanding a planned power line be rerouted through their poverty-stricken province, took to the streets of the capital city.
Eye witnesses said the explosions left over 50 protesters dead and at least 170 others wounded, including a Tasnim reporter.
Ambulances failed to turn up on time to help the injured as Afghan authorities had closed off streets across the capital in preparation for the demonstration.
No one has claimed responsibility for the bombings yet.
It was the second march against the current route of a multi-million-dollar regional electricity line. The last one in May attracted tens of thousands.
The so-called TUTAP line is backed by the Asian Development Bank with involvement of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The original plan routed the line through Bamiyan province, in the central highlands, where most of the country’s Shiite Hazaras live.
That route was changed in 2013 by the previous Afghan government.
