A group of tourists and their companions were shot at as they walked through a market in central Afghanistan.
Three Afghans and three Spanish tourists have been killed in central Afghanistan’s Bamyan province, the Taliban government said, raising the death toll from market attacks.
On Saturday, the government announced that the bodies of three Afghans and three Spanish tourists had been transferred to the capital Kabul.
The group was shot on Friday as they walked through a bazaar in the mountainous city of Bamiyan, about 180 kilometers from Kabul.
“All the bodies have been transferred to Kabul and are being kept in the forensic department, and the injured are also in Kabul. A woman is also among the dead and injured,” Interior Ministry spokesperson Abdul Mateen said. Khani told AFP news agency.
“Of the eight injured, there are four foreigners, but only one, an elderly foreigner, is in unstable condition.”
Bamiyan hospital officials said the injured were from Norway, Australia, Lithuania and Spain.
Qaani said the dead included two Afghan civilians and one Taliban member.
Taliban soldiers stand guard in front of the ruins of a 1,500-year-old Buddha statue destroyed in Bamiyan, Afghanistan. [File: Ali Khara/Reuters]“They were wandering in the bazaar when they were attacked,” he added.
Seven suspects were taken into custody, one of whom was injured, and the investigation was continuing, Kani said.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
The Spanish government said on Friday that three of the dead were Spanish tourists, adding that at least one other Spaniard was injured.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez posted on X that he was “overwhelmed by the news of the murder of a Spanish tourist in Afghanistan.”
Speaking on Spanish public television TVE, Foreign Minister José Manuel Álvarez said the body was likely to be brought back to Spain on Sunday.
He said one of the injured had already undergone surgery in Kabul.
Afghanistan’s tourism sector is stagnant, with the number of foreign tourists increasing by 120% year-on-year in 2023 to nearly 5,200, according to official statistics.
Bamiyan is one of Afghanistan’s top tourist destinations, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and home to the ruins of two giant Buddha statues that were blown up in 2001 when the Taliban took control of Afghanistan.
Since reoccupying the country in 2021 after the withdrawal of US-led forces, the Taliban have vowed to restore security and encourage a small but growing number of tourists.
Friday’s attack was the deadliest since the Taliban took power three years ago.
The Spanish embassy was evacuated along with other Western missions in 2021 after the Taliban regained control of Kabul.
