Kandahar blast hurts 18

A bomb exploded in the main market of the southern Afghan city of Kandahar on Saturday, wounding at least 18 people, police and witnesses sa...

A bomb exploded in the main market of the southern Afghan city of Kandahar on Saturday, wounding at least 18 people, police and witnesses said. Police blamed Taliban or allied Islamic militants for the blast, which shattered windows in a hotel.

A spokesperson for the Taliban, however, denied responsibility. A police officer at the scene said the blast may have been caused by explosives rigged to a bicycle. Victims could be seen lying bleeding on the street in Kandahar’s main market, the Chowk-e Shahidan, which was crowded with people at the time.

Osama:
Taliban rule in celluloid

Kabul/ Dec 6: A new film titled Osama stars an illiterate 12-year-old found begging in the streets of Kabul, who plays a girl who poses as a boy so she can work. It’s the time of the Taliban; the men in her family are dead, and women cannot leave home unless accompanied by male relatives. The movie is the story of a young Afghan girl who is raised by her mother and grandmother in Kabul during the Taliban regime.
The movie is the first feature film made by an Afghan since the ouster of the hardline Islamic regime. It was honoured this year at several international film festivals. (AP)

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Kandahar police chief Mohammad Hashim blamed Islamic militants fighting the US-backed government, and told reporters: ‘‘This is the work of the Taliban and their foreign supporters’’.

But a Taliban spokesperson, Mullah Abdul Samad, denied the Taliban were behind the blast, saying it could be the work of a disgruntled government military commander unhappy about elections to a constitutional Assembly due to meet in Kabul this month.

‘‘It was a civilian place and Taliban do not attack civilian targets,’’ Samad said. ‘‘This is an attempt to malign the Taliban.’’(Reuters)

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