A cleric escaped unhurt after suspected Taliban militants bombed his house on Tuesday in the latest attack on religious leaders who back Afghanistanâs US-friendly administration, officials said. Maulvi Rehmatullah, leader of the religious council of Khost province, was leaving his house when the blast happened, said Interior Ministry spokesman Lutfullah Mashal. The attack was the sixth on pro-government clerics in the past three months. Mashal blamed it on âenemies of peace and stabilityâ â Afghan jargon for the Taliban and their allies.On Sunday Taliban insurgents shot dead Mulla Abdullah Malang, deputy head of the religious council of the Panjwaey district in Kandahar province, and his companion. In May Maulvi Abdullah Fayyaz, chief of the Islamic Council in Kandahar, was gunned down near his house. Twenty-one people died when a suicide bomber struck at his funeral on June 1. Fayyaz had spoken out against Taliban leader Mulla Muhammad Omar, who has been on the run since the US-led invasion of Afghanistan toppled the fundamentalist militia in late 2001.
A month later another leading member of the Kandahar Islamic Council, Maulvi Muhammad Musbah, was ambushed and shot dead outside the city. Separately in Qalat, capital of Zabul province, three civilians were wounded late on Monday when suspected Taliban opened fire on their vehicle, officials said. âThe Taliban might have mistaken the civilian vehicle for a government vehicle,â said provincial spokesman Gulab Ali Khali.