Sawt Falasteen - Thousands attend funeral of Afghan minister

The Minister for Refugees and Repatriation, Khalil Ur-Rahman Haqqani, was killed on Wednesday afternoon in a suicide bombing at the ministry's offices in the Afghan capital.

Thousands of men, many of them armed, gathered for Haqqani's funeral in his home village of Sarana, in a mountainous area of Paktia province, south of Kabul.

The funeral included heavy security, with armoured vehicles, snipers and personnel manning the area and the road from Kabul, which was jammed with hundreds of cars as mourners travelled from surrounding provinces.

Senior Taliban officials, including the Chief of Army Staff Qari Fasihuddin Fitrat, and Maulawi Abdul Kabir, political deputy of the prime minister's office, attended the funeral, according to an AFP team on site.

The deceased's nephew, the powerful interior minister, Sirajuddin Haqqani, also attended, along with foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi.

In a speech there, Muttaqi said the latest IS attacks had been planned "abroad", denouncing, without naming them, "countries harbouring" the organisation.

"We call on all nations to work together to stop the common enemy, which does not recognise any kind of morality."

In September, the Taliban authorities said IS had training camps in Balochistan province of Pakistan, which also regularly faces jihadist attacks.

- 'Protect our other leaders' -

Haqqani, the highest ranked member of the Taliban government to be killed in an attack since their return to power, "was a big loss for us, the system and the nation", said Paktia resident Hedayatullah, 22.

"May God protect our other leaders and keep them victorious."

"Our leader... who had his life brutally taken away, achieved martyrdom," said Bostan, 53, haranguing the "cowardly attack" that killed Haqqani.

The United Nations mission in Afghanistan condemned the attack on Thursday, offering condolences to the victims' families.

"There can be no place for terrorism in the quest for stability," the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said on X.

The European Union and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation also condemned the attack, along with Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Iran.

Haqqani -- who is on US and UN sanctions lists and never appeared without an automatic weapon in his hand -- was the brother of Jalaluddin Haqqani, founder of the feared Haqqani network responsible for some of the most violent attacks during the Taliban's two-decade insurgency.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack, saying a bomber detonated an explosive vest inside the ministry, according to a statement on its Amaq news agency, as translated by the SITE Intelligence Group.

Taliban authorities had already blamed IS for the "cowardly attack" -- the first targeting a minister since the Taliban returned to power in 2021.

Violence has waned in Afghanistan since the Taliban forces took over the country that year, ending their war against US-led NATO coalition forces.

However, the regional chapter of IS, known as Islamic State Khorasan, is active in Afghanistan and has regularly targeted civilians, foreigners and Taliban officials with gun and bomb attacks.

Y.AlMasri--SF-PST