At least four local officials including the district administrative chief of Bati Kot were injured in an explosion in eastern Nangarhar province of Afghanistan earlier today.
A statement by the provincial government said Bati Kot district chief Haji Ghalib was injured after an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) planted on a roadside went off in Jani Khel area.
The incident took place around 8 am local time as the officials were on a visit to the area, the statement said, adding that the district police chief, district NDS chief, and another official were among those wounded along with Haji Ghalib.
The provincial government said an operation is underway to arrest those involved behind the bombing.
The local residents did not suffer any casualties in the explosion, the provincial government added.
Nangarhar is among the relatively calm provinces in eastern Afghanistan but the anti-government armed militant groups have recently increased their insurgency activities in some parts of the province during the recent years.
This comes as the Afghan forces conducted counter-terrorism operations in the restive districts of Nangarhar under the Hamza operations launched around two weeks ago.
Both the Afghan and US forces based in Afghanistan are conducting regular operations to suppress the insurgency led by ISIS militants and other insurgent groups including Taliban.
In the latest major counter-terrorism efforts, the US military in Afghanistan used the massive GBU-43 bomb to destroy the tunnels network and other key hideouts and centers of ISIS terrorist group in the restive Achin district.
