Anger mounts after Kabul suicide attack

Anger is growing in Afghanistan's Hazara minority in the wake of a suicide attack which killed 80 people, with questions over whether it was preventable.

The day after a suicide bomb attack in Kabul, Afghanistan

Afghanistan's Hazara minority has begun burying more than 80 people killed in a suicide attack. (AAP)

Members of Afghanistan's Hazara minority have begun burying more than 80 people killed in a suicide attack in Kabul with many blaming political leaders for security failures that led to the massacre.

Officials said 84 graves were dug into a hillside in the west of Kabul and bodies were brought up throughout Sunday afternoon but, with large public assemblies banned for security reasons, there was no mass funeral.

The attack on Saturday, against a demonstration by the mainly Shi'ite Hazara, was among the worst in Afghanistan since the fall of the former Taliban regime in 2001.

It was claimed by Islamic State, which had never carried out any operation on a comparable scale in Afghanistan, raising fears of a new escalation and the kind of sectarian violence which has so far been relatively uncommon.

Earlier, relatives of some of those killed had searched through a bloodied assortment of belongings left after the twin blasts tore into a demonstration where thousands were protesting over the route of a planned power transmission line.

"Those are my cousin's sandals," said Sayed Mohammad as he stood in a crowd of people looking for anything familiar among the remnants.

President Ashraf Ghani announced a day of mourning and ordered Dehmazang Square, the site of the blasts, to be renamed Martyrs Square.

As well as the more than 80 dead, some 230 people were injured.

The attack, described by the top UN official in Afghanistan as a "war crime", drew condemnation and offers of support from countries including Russia and the United States.

But for some, there was fury at both the government and Hazara political leaders.

The Hazara, a Persian-speaking minority who make up about nine per cent of the population, have long suffered discrimination and violence.

They have by and large supported Ghani's government, which includes some of their senior leaders, but many complain their support has not been returned.

Reflecting the often unfocused anger that erupted after the attack, witnesses saw some demonstrators turning on police who arrived in the aftermath of the explosion and some even blamed the government for the attacks.

"If the Taliban and Daesh (IS) do not have helpers in the presidential palace, how can they carry out such attacks?" asked Taher Ahmadi.

Saturday's protest over a multimillion dollar power line, which demonstrators wanted to re-route through two provinces with large Hazara populations, had become a touchstone for a wider sense of injustice.

The demonstration took place under tight security, with much of Kabul blocked off.


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Source: AAP


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