A bomb has killed 14 women and children at a graveyard in eastern Afghanistan as the country celebrated the Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of Ramadan, officials say.
Many Muslims visit the graves of deceased relatives during Eid as part of traditional celebrations after the holy month of fasting.
Haji Ghalib, a pro-government tribal leader and former district police chief, told AFP that the explosion on Thursday had targeted his family at an all-female event to commemorate his late wife in the Ghani Khel district of Nangarhar province.
He said the mourning group was gathered over his wife's grave to recite the Koran when the blast erupted, killing 14 people. "I'm shocked, I can't talk," he said.
Ahmad Zia Abdulzai, the Nangarhar governor's spokesman, told AFP: "Seven women and seven children were killed and four others, three women and a child are wounded."
News that makes sense
Your trusted source for staying up-to-date with the world around you. Get free daily news updates and analysis, straight to your inbox.
Abdulzai added that the bomb appeared to have been hidden near the grave, and suggested the motive may have a personal enmity. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
Earlier on Thursday, President Hamid Karzai delivered an Eid address that again urged the Taliban to halt 12 years of fighting as the country seeks stability before next year's elections and the withdrawal of NATO-led troops.
In a thinly-veiled reference to neighbouring Pakistan, Karzai appealed to the Taliban to resist being controlled by foreigners and said the militants should support their own country.
"You are working for others, (foreign) guns are put on your shoulders, and innocent Afghan people are being killed by it, homes are destroyed," he said.
"Give up on it, be Afghan."
Karzai said the rebels would be welcome to open a political office in Kabul, after their new office unveiled in Qatar in June triggered a collapse in efforts to start peace talks.
"If you'd opened your office in Kabul, like other (political) parties in Afghanistan, you would have been respected," he said.
"The gun that is given to you by strangers - leave that gun and take up shovels and work at your home. This is your home and you will never be disgraced, in other lands you are strangers and will never get respect."
Reclusive Taliban leader Mullah Omar on Tuesday issued his own Eid message, dismissing the presidential elections due in April as "a waste of time" but insisting the militants had no desire to grab power after NATO troops leave.
