26 killed, 80 injured in Afghan blast

A massive explosion at a warehouse in Nangarhar province, eastern Afghanistan, killed 26 people and wounded around 80 yesterday, an official said.

The deputy governor of the province said the blast near Jalalabad city was not an act of terrorism.

Dr Mohammed Asif Qarizada, a former Afghan muja-hideen military commander and now deputy governor, said the blast was apparently caused by explosives stored in the warehouse of a non-governmental organisation (NGO), Afghan Construction & Logistics Unit (ACLU).

He said dynamite and other explosives were reportedly being used by the said NGO in road construction. He ruled out the hand of terrorists in the explosion.

Earlier, Jalalabad's corps commander, Hazrat Ali, had said that it was a car-bomb explosion. He also differed with the deputy governor on the number of people killed in the incident.

"It looks like a suicide car bomb in the warehouse," Ali told AFP by phone from Jalalabad, adding that 50 houses had also been damaged by the force of the blast.

"It appeared the goal was to destroy the electricity dam."

After visiting the site, Ali, who said most of the victims were local residents, was "100 per cent sure it was not an accident".

"I have seen wires and the remnants of detonators, that's why I think it was a bomb in a car. We had had reports that there would be a big explosion in this area. We had tightened security but we did not think it would happen inside this warehouse as it is a reconstruction agency."

Senior government spokes-man Omar Samad said it was too early to determine the exact cause of the blast.

"It could be an act of sabotage, but it appears possible that explosive material was being stored in the warehouse," Samad said.

Qarizada said the impact of the blast damaged window-panes in buildings in the nearby campus of the Nangarhar University. Students hit by the flying glass were among the injured.

Earlier, the death toll as reported by different sources ranged from 20 to 50. One report said about 20 bodies had been retrieved. It was also reported that a number of the injured were in critical condition at Jalalabad's lone, ill-equipped public hospital.

The ACLU warehouse is located in the Darwanta suburbs of Jalalabad near a hydel-power station on the river Kabul. Eyewitnesses said electricity supply to Jalalabad city was disrupted by the explosion.

Staff at the ACLU offices in Peshawar said they were unaware that explosives were kept in their Jalalabad warehouse.

ACLU's project manager in Kabul, Engineer Mohammad Arouf, said local staff had been engaged in a scheme to build a bridge in the area. He told AFP that 16 Afghan staff were working in ACLU's offices in Jalalabad.