Taliban birthplace experiences horrible day as 3 blasts rattle Kandahar

Taliban birthplace in Afghanistan's southern Kandahar province experienced a terrified day on Monday as three explosions rocked the provincial capital Kandahar city and claimed the lives of at least two non-combatants.

In the first explosion, in precinct 4 of Kandahar city in the morning rush hour, apparently targeted the deputy police chief of the province Assadullah Shirzad.

Minutes later, another blast hit the same area.

The twin explosions claimed the lives of two civilians and injured two police constables, according to officials.

The third explosion occurred inside a garden outside the Kandahar city causing no loss of life, Shirzad said.

Kandahar, the birthplace of Taliban from where the insurgents emerged in 1994 and ruled 90 percent of the war-torn country until the collapse of their regime in late 2001, has been the scene of increasing militancy over the past five years.

Continued insurgency in Kandahar, the former spiritual capital of Taliban, has not only caused panic among the locals, but also prompted the United Nation to urge its employees to stay indoors as a precautionary measure.

"We have asked our employees to stay at home and this decision is temporarily," the UN spokesman Dan McNorton told Xinhua.

Frequent security incidents and Taliban-linked militancy in Kandahar have claimed the lives of over a dozen people with majority of whom local officials over the past couple of weeks, prompting central government to mull security plan.

"After several terror attacks against government officials in Kandahar, a new security plan has been chalked out and would be implemented in the near future to ensure security there," Afghan President Hamid Karzai's chief spokesman Waheed Omar told a press conference on Sunday.

He also expressed optimism that the new security plan would curb militancy in Kandahar and ensure security for the people there.

Since the start of April, at least seven explosions including a donkey bomb have struck Kandahar, claiming the lives of some two dozen people mostly civilians.

The new impetus in militancy is seen amid military preparation to crack down on Taliban hideouts in Kandahar.

Afghan and NATO-led forces, according to military officials, have been devising a comprehensive plan to kick off an operation against Taliban fighters in their birthplace possibly in June.

Source: Xinhua