‘255 Afghan civilians killed during Ramazan’

KABUL: The Ministry of Interior Affairs said on Tuesday that 15 suicide attacks and dozens of other attacks have been carried out “by the Taliban” since the start of Ramadan on April 13.

The ministry said that 500 more civilians were wounded in the attacks during this period. The Interior Ministry said that the Taliban were responsible for 200 blasts and 15 suicide bombings during Ramadan.

The Taliban has denied the government’s claims that the group has a big hand in civilian deaths. The first day of Ramadan on April 13 witnessed clashes between Afghan security forces and the Taliban, in which eight civilians were killed and 21 more were wounded.

“I thank all security forces. They prevented over 800 incidents and arrested over 800 terrorists who will be trailed and law will be implemented,” President Ghani said on Tuesday.

“An attempt was made to kill Halimi because he told the truth but there wasn’t any mosque in Pakistan to raise their voice to condemn this massacre… From this, you will know the depth of the incident and will know where the plot is,” Saleh said.

Figures obtained by TOLOnews from sources show that civilian deaths increased by 20% during the last one month (April 13 to May 12) compared to a month before. Most of the civilian deaths were caused by a car bomb attack in Logar, car bomb attack in Farsi district in Herat, roadside bomb blast in Zabul and three explosions near Sayed-ul-Shuhada school in Kabul.

“Civilian casualties were high during Ramadan and there was a need for ceasefire. We hope the ceasefire continues so that we can move towards the talks,” said Khan Agha Rezaee, head of the internal security committee of the parliament. But overall, the announcement of the three-day ceasefire has created some hope among the people who say that this should be converted to a permanent ceasefire.