An explosion ripped through a Chinese-operated eatery located within a hotel in a heavily secured area of Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital, resulting in the deaths of a Chinese national and six Afghan individuals, with multiple others sustaining injuries, including a child, according to officials. The incident took place in the Shahr-e-Naw commercial district of Kabul, known for its office buildings, shopping centers, and embassies, said police spokesperson Khalid Zadran, noting that the area is typically considered one of the safest in the city. The Islamic State’s Afghan branch claimed responsibility for the attack, asserting that it was carried out by a suicide bomber.
The restaurant, managed jointly by a Chinese Muslim man named Abdul Majid, his wife, and an Afghan partner named Abdul Jabbar Mahmood, catered to the Chinese Muslim community, as mentioned by Zadran. The Amaq news agency reported that the local faction of the Islamic State had included Chinese citizens on its list of targets, citing alleged mistreatment of Uyghurs by the Chinese government. Uyghurs, a primarily Muslim ethnic minority numbering around 10 million individuals residing in China’s Xinjiang region, have been subject to purported widespread abuses, according to rights groups. China denies these allegations, accusing Western nations of interference and spreading falsehoods.
The explosion claimed the lives of one Chinese national, identified as Ayub, and six Afghan individuals, with several others sustaining injuries, mostly near the kitchen area, Zadran stated. Social media videos depicted debris strewn across the street and smoke billowing from a significant breach in the restaurant’s front façade. Dejan Panic, the country director for the humanitarian organization EMERGENCY in Afghanistan, reported receiving 20 individuals at their hospital, including four women and a child, with seven individuals already deceased upon arrival.
While Afghan authorities refrained from stating the cause of the blast, citing an ongoing investigation, the president of neighboring Pakistan attributed the incident to a bomb explosion. Despite the Taliban assuming power in war-torn Afghanistan in 2021 with promises of enhancing security, bomb attacks persist, many of which are claimed by the local branch of the militant Islamic State organization.