Kabul (June 2, 2017): At least four people have been killed and eight injured after police fired to halt protesters demanding the government step down in the wake of a devastating bomb attack.
Public anger has mounted after an explosives-laden sewage tanker detonated in Kabul’s diplomatic quarter on Wednesday, killing 90 people and wounding hundreds of others in the deadliest attack in the Afghan capital since 2001. Crowds rallied near the site of Wednesday’s blast, chanting anti-government and anti-Taliban slogans. Police in riot gear also used tear gas and water cannon to block them from the presidential palace.
Hundreds of demonstrators calling for President Ashraf Ghani to step down and chanting “Death to the Taliban” clashed with police near the bombing site, prompting officials to beat them back with live rounds, mostly in the air, tear gas and water cannon.
Kabul’s Emergency Hospital said four protesters died on arrival while 15 others were wounded, some of them critically.
Kabul has been on edge since the bombing, which highlighted the ability of militants to strike even in the capital’s most secure district, home to the presidential palace and foreign embassies that are enveloped in a maze of concrete blast walls.
About 90 people died in the bomb blast, one of the deadliest in Kabul in years.
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