Thousands attend the funeral of a Taliban minister killed by an Islamic State suicide bomber

GARDA SERAI, Afghanistan — Thousands of people attended the funeral on Thursday of a Taliban minister killed in a suicide bombing in Afghanistan's capital, Kabul, the day before that was claimed by the Islamic State group.

The funeral for Khalil Haqqani, the minister for refugees and repatriation, was held in the eastern Paktia province. The Cabinet member was the most high-profile casualty of an assault in the country since the Taliban seized power three years ago.

The minister, who died in a blast Wednesday at his ministry in Kabul along with five others, was the uncle of Sirajuddin Haqqani, the acting interior minister and the leader of a powerful faction within the Taliban. The United States has placed a bounty on both their heads.

Tight security was in place for the high-ranking officials attending the funeral, including Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi and Deputy Prime Minister Maulvi Abdul Kabir.

Armed men guarded the coffin, which was draped in the Taliban flag, and loudspeakers broadcast sermons and eulogies. Local and international media were invited to cover the funeral in Garda Serai district in Paktia.

Sirajuddin Haqqani led the mourners in prayer. They gathered on a vast plain against a backdrop of rugged mountains. Haqqani told the crowd he wished the person who perpetrated this ''weak action'' had thought of his uncle as an enemy of non-Muslims.

''The Americans offered a $5 million reward (for information) on him," said the acting interior minister. "He was not an enemy of Muslims. How can you call this a great victory, that you martyred a Muslim and are proud of it?''

An official from Paktia, the Haqqanis' heartland, gave a different account of what happened. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

The assailant was able to gain access to the ministry despite setting off an alarm on the body scanner because he told the guard he had metal plates in his hands, the official said. He also claimed he was a refugee.

The official added that Haqqani made time for refugees and people with disabilities who come to see him at work because he was sympathetic to their plight.

He was approaching the ministry after praying in the compound's mosque when the assailant detonated the bomb, the official added.

The U.N. mission in Afghanistan was among those to condemn the ministry attack. ''There can be no place for terrorism in the quest for stability,'' the mission said on X.

The IS affiliate, a major rival of the ruling Taliban, has previously carried out bombings across Afghanistan. But suicide attacks have become rare since the Taliban seized power in August 2021 as U.S. and NATO forces were withdrawing after 20 years of war.

Such assaults have mostly targeted minority Shiite Muslims, especially in the capital.

___