Kuz Kunar ( ps, کوز کونړ, lit. "Lower Kunar") or Khewa ( ps, ښېوه; also spelled Shewa) is a
district
A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municipa ...
in the north of
Nangarhar Province,
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
, on the
Kunar River
The Kūnaṛ River ( ps, د کونړ سيند), also known in its upper reaches as the Mastuj ( ps, مستوج سين), Chitral ( khw, کونڑ سين; ur, دریائے کونڑ), or Kama River ( khw, کامې سين), is about long, located ...
. It is counted one of the more secure districts of Nangarhar, where many foreigners go to visit the social, agricultural and structural rehabilitation of the area. Its population, which is 75%
Pashtun
Pashtuns (, , ; ps, پښتانه, ), also known as Pakhtuns or Pathans, are an Iranian ethnic group who are native to the geographic region of Pashtunistan in the present-day countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan. They were historically re ...
, was estimated at 167,640 in 2002, of whom 32,000 were children under 12. It is also hometown of Swedish cricketer Saeed Ahmed son of Abdul Qahar.
History
On
12 May 2020, a
suicide bombing took place in Kuz Kunar District at the funeral of Shaikh Akram, a former commander of the district's police force, who had died of a heart attack a day earlier. The blast killed 32 people and injured 133 others, some severely.
Abdullah Malikzai, a member of Nangarhar's provincial council, was killed in the attack, while his father, Malik Qais Noor Agha, a lawmaker, was wounded.
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant – Khorasan Province
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God (or ''Allah'') as it was revealed to Muhammad, the mai ...
(ISIL–KP) claimed responsibility for the attack. However, the Afghan government claimed that the
Taliban
The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalist, militant Islamist, jihadist, and Pasht ...
and the affiliated
Haqqani network
The Haqqani network is an Afghan Islamist group, built around the family of the same name, that has used asymmetric warfare in Afghanistan to fight against Soviet forces in the 1980s, and US-led NATO forces and the Islamic Republic of Afghanist ...
were behind the attack.
References
External links
Map of Kuz Kunar district(PDF)
UNHCR District Profile dated 2002-04-22, accessed 2006-07-20 (PDF).
Districts of Nangarhar Province
{{Nangarhar-geo-stub