The Taliban governor of the northern Afghan province of Balkh was killed along with two others in a blast that there through his office Thursday, police said.
"Today around 9 a.m. a blast took place inside the second floor of the governor's office, due to the blast (governor) Mawlawi Mohammad Dawood Muzamil has been killed with two civilians," said Mohammed Asif Waziri, Balkh's police spokesperson.
"Two people, including Mohammad Dawood Muzammil, the governor of Balkh, have been killed in an explosion this morning," local police spokesman Asif Waziri told AFP, adding that the blast happened on the second floor of his office, in the provincial capital Mazar-i-Sharif.
"It was a suicide attack. We don't have information as to how the suicide bomber reached the office of the governor," he said, adding that two people were also wounded.
The explosion happened moments after the governor arrived in his office, said Khairuddin, who was wounded in the incident and in a hospital in Mazar-i-Sharif.
"There was a bang. I fell on the ground," he told AFP, adding that he witnessed a friend lose a hand in the blast.
Muzammil was "martyred in an explosion by the enemies of Islam," tweeted government spokesperson, Zabihullah Mujahid.
Muzammil was initially appointed governor of the eastern province of Nangarhar, where he led the fight against Daesh terrorists, before being moved to Balkh last year.
On Wednesday, he met two deputy prime ministers and other senior officials visiting Balkh to review a major irrigation project in northern Afghanistan, according to a government statement.
No group had yet claimed responsibility for the attack but fingers were pointed at the Daesh terrorist group, which carried out a series of deadly attacks in Afghanistan in recent months, some on civilian targets and others on Taliban security forces.
Violence across Afghanistan has dramatically dropped since the Taliban seized control, but the security situation has again deteriorated with the deadly Daesh attacks.
