The death toll from the twin suicide bombings on a Shiite minority mosque hasrisen to 34, while the number of those wounded has been reviewed downwards from 81 to 76, police chief spokesman, Sardar Wali Tabasum, said.
Initially, on Friday, officials declared 29 persons dead and 81 injured in the incident which took place in Gardiz, the capital city of Paktia province.
Two male suicide bombers dressed in women’s clothes and armed with rifles, had entered a Shiite mosque in the Khoja Hassan in Gardiz on Friday afternoon, opening fire on worshippers before blowing themselves up, officials said.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, though Taliban militants have denied involvement in the deadly incident.
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Members of the Islamic State terrorist militia have been targeting minority Shia across Afghanistan regularly.
Some 200 Shiite families are living in Khoja Hassan, a spokesman for the provincial governor, Abdullah Hasrat, said.
Paktia province is mainly populated by ethnic Pashtuns, who mostly follow Sunni Islam.
According to a United Nations’ Assistance Mission for Afghanistan (UNAMA) report, 115 civilians have been killed and 251 injured in attacks during the past six months on the Shia Muslim population.
Nearly all attacks have been claimed by IS members.
