Taliban governor of Afghanistan’s Balkh province killed in blast

A bomb blast in Afghanistan’s northern Balkh province has killed three people, including its Taliban governor, police said.

“Two people, including Mohammad Dawood Muzammil, the governor of Balkh, have been killed in an explosion this morning,” police spokesman Asif Waziri said on Thursday.

Waziri said the blast happened on the second floor of his office in the provincial capital of 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 killing of Muzammil, known for his resistance to the ISIL in the area, came a day after he met top government officials visiting from capital Kabul.

Authorities deployed extra security at the governorate and forbade journalists from taking photos, a correspondent of the AFP news agency reported from near the site of the blast.

Several attacks have rocked Balkh, including in Mazar-i-Sharif last year, some claimed by the armed group.