3 blasts kill 21 Afghans in 2 days

Twenty-one people mostly civilians have been killed in a suicide attack and two bomb blasts in the conflict-plagued Afghanistan over the past two days. The latest bicycle bomb blast rocked Ghazni city, 125 km south of Kabul, on Wednesday, killing two people including a police officer and injuring 10 others mostly civilians. "The terrorists planted explosive device on a bicycle and the device exploded in a crowded area of Ghazni city at noon, killing two persons including a senior police officer and a civilian and injuring 10 others including a police and nine civilians," Assadullah Safi, deputy police chief of Ghazni province, told Xinhua. However, in the bloodiest attack so far this year, a suicide bomber killed 17 civilians and injured 48 others on Tuesday in Maimana, capital of northwestern Faryab province, Public Health Ministry said in a statement. Women and children were among those killed in the violent incident, the statement added. The deadly suicide bombing was carried out by a Taliban militant when the local residents prepared celebration of Naw Roz or New Year in Persian calendar falling on Friday. The extremist Taliban outfit had termed Naw Roz festival as non-Islamic and banned it before its regime was toppled in late 2001. In a related development, a mine went off in Marawara district of eastern Kunar province bordering Pakistan's lawless tribal area, killing two people including a soldier and injuring a non- combatant on Wednesday, Inspector General of Police Abdul Habib Sayed Khili said. The Taliban-led insurgency is believed to intensify in the run up to the presidential election on April 5. Taliban militants have said that the election is "a waste of time and a U.S. trick to continue its occupation of Afghanistan." "The defeated Americans are going to leave Afghanistan but before leaving, it is attempting to install its man through fake elections to continue its indirect occupation of Afghanistan," the Taliban said in a statement posted on its website on March 10.