Attacks across Afghanistan cause deadliest day for civilians this year

New post: Hussain Nadim, "The quiet rise of the Quetta Shura" (FP). Deadliest day In addition to the triple suicide bombing in Nimroz Province that killed at least 29 people on Tuesday, a remote-detonated bomb on a motorcycle in the northern province of Kunduz killed 10 people who were at a bazaar after the evening ...

BANARAS KHAN/AFP/GettyImages
BANARAS KHAN/AFP/GettyImages
BANARAS KHAN/AFP/GettyImages

New post: Hussain Nadim, "The quiet rise of the Quetta Shura" (FP).

New post: Hussain Nadim, "The quiet rise of the Quetta Shura" (FP).

Deadliest day

In addition to the triple suicide bombing in Nimroz Province that killed at least 29 people on Tuesday, a remote-detonated bomb on a motorcycle in the northern province of Kunduz killed 10 people who were at a bazaar after the evening prayer that breaks the Ramadan fast (NYT, AP, CNN, LAT). And in northeastern Badakhshan Province Taliban militants ambushed a vehicle, killing a district governor and three policemen who were traveling in a remote area of the province. With the overall death toll estimated at 43, it marked the deadliest day for Afghan civilians this year.

On Wednesday, two grenades exploded inside of a mosque compound in the eastern province of Khost, injuring at least nine people (AP). A spokesman for the eastern province of Kunar, Wasifullah Wasify, said Wednesday that shelling from across the border in Pakistan had killed at least one Afghan border patrol officer and wounded four others (AP). Afghan president Hamid Karzai and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari agreed on Tuesday to send a joint Afghan-Pakistani military team to investigate recent cross-border attacks and skirmishes (AFP).

Making nice

Pakistan on Wednesday released 55 Indian fishermen in a goodwill gesture on Independence Day in India (AFP).  Meanwhile, militants in the northwestern tribal agency of Mohmand killed one person and injured two conscripted soldiers in their ambush of a checkpoint and the home of a local peace committee leader (ET).

The U.S. State Department is currently deciding whether to add the Pakistan-based Haqqani Network to the U.S. list of designated global terrorist organizations, after President Barack Obama on Friday signed a bill into law giving Secretary of State Hillary Clinton 30 days to determine if the network meets the criteria of a terrorist group (AFP).

I will not be stereotyped

Frustrated by comments on her blog asking if, like media coverage of Pakistan often suggests, all Pakistanis are extremists, blogger Mehreen Kasana decided to launch a campaign to combat this perception (ET). Kasana asked for and received over 200 pictures of people all over the world holding signs condemning the stereotyping of Pakistanis, and posted them online on August 14, Pakistan’s Independence Day.

— Jennifer Rowland

Jennifer Rowland is a research associate in the National Security Studies Program at the New America Foundation.

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