Deadly explosion hits Afghanistan's Jalalabad

Attaullah Khogyani, the provincial governor's spokesman, said the blast had killed 12 people and wounded 20 others in a market area of the capital of Nangarhar province. 

Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Najib Danish said the attack was "most probably" carried out by a bomber. "I can confirm there are some Afghan Hindus among the wounded and we are checking if they are among the fatalities."

A few hours later, Inaamullah Miakhel, a spokesman for the provincial health department of Nangarhar, said 19 people had been killed and 20
wounded.

Some local officials said the casualty total might have been much higher if much of the city had not been blocked off for a visit by President Ashraf Ghani.

The president arrived in Jalalabad earlier in the day to open a hospital. It is part of a two-day visit to the restive province. Ghani's spokesman confirmed the president was still in Nangarhar but was "away from danger."

The Takfiri Daesh terrorists have established substantial presence in Jalalabad in recent years.

Separately, suspected Daesh terrorists decapitated three people at a boys’ school and set the building on fire in an attack carried out in the same province.

Since late last year, the Takfiri terrorist group, which has already lost all its urban strongholds in Syria and Iraq, has taken advantage of the chaos in Afghanistan and established a foothold in the Asian country’s eastern and northern regions, launching brutal attacks against civilians and security forces alike.

According to Afghan intelligence documents, Daesh is present in nine provinces, from Nangarhar and Kunar in the east to Jawzjan, Faryab, and Badakhshan in the north, and Ghor in the central west.

In November last year, former Afghan President Hamid Karzai said the United States was colluding with Daesh in Afghanistan and allowing the Takfiri group to flourish in the war-stricken country.