Blast at Afghan music market, two dead: officials

KABUL: An improvised bomb exploded at a music market in an Afghan city on Saturday, leaving two people dead, officials said, a day after Taliban militants stormed a lakeside resort near Kabul, killing at least 18.

The blast at the market in the eastern city of Jalalabad, close to the border with Pakistan's militant-infested tribal areas, wounded four people, local government spokesman Ahmad Zia Abdulzai said.

Two of the casualties later died from their injuries, Sayed Afandi Sayedi, a senior doctor at the local hospital, said.

Under the hardline rule of the Taliban, overthrown by a US-led invasion in 2001, music was regarded as un-Islamic and banned, and Afghan music shop owners particularly in Jalalabad, have recently complained of being threatened by extremists.

Saturday's blast and Friday's bloody 12-hour siege at a hotel popular with families will add to fears that the Taliban are seeking to re-impose their extreme moral code as the departure of foreign forces approaches.

The 130,000 NATO troops are due to leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014 and there are fears that their exit will lead to a reduction in rights and freedoms in the war-torn country.

Source: http://www.brecorder.com/world/south-asia/63831-blast-at-afghan-music-market-two-dead-officials-.html