JALALABAD, Afghanistan, July 14 (Xinhua) -- Two civilians were killed and seven others wounded in two separate incidents in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar on Friday, said the provincial government in a statement.
Gunmen armed with silenced pistols shot dead poet Esmatullah Bashari and Qudrat Ullah at a local bazaar in Khogyani District roughly at 11 a.m. local time, the statement said.
Authorities were investigating the motive behind the killing as the assailants fled the scene shortly after the firing.
nearly at the same time, seven civilians, including a woman and four children, were wounded after an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) attached to a bicycle was detonated in the 5th Police District of provincial capital Jalalabad city.
According to the statement, the injured did not suffer life-threatening wounds, but they were receiving treatment at a regional hospital in the city, 120 km east of Kabul.
Provincial Governor Gulab Mangal strongly condemned the attacks and instructed the security officials to find and bring to justice the perpetrators behind the explosion and the shooting, the statement noted.
The Afghan civilians continue to bear the brunt of armed conflicts as 715 civilians were killed and over 1,460 others injured in conflict-related incidents in the first three months of the year, according to figures released by the United Nations mission in the country.
