Shootout at wedding party claims 20 lives in N. Afghanistan

A boy stands in the yard of a house where an attack happened at a wedding ceremony on Sunday night, in Deh Salah district, Baghlan province, July 27, 2015. [Photo/Agencies]

KABUL - Up to 20 people, all civilians, were killed and 10 others sustained injuries as a gunfight broke out between two armed groups in a wedding party in Dehsalah district of the northern Baghlan province with Pul-e-Khumri as its capital 160 km north of Kabul early Monday, police said.

"A wedding party was underway in a village of Dehsalah district when firing erupted between armed men inside the house where the guests were sitting at midnight, leaving 20 people dead and injured 10 others," district police chief Gulistan Khan told Xinhua.

All the victims were civilians and all were men, the official added.

Without giving more details, he added that an investigation has been initiated to determine the cause of the deadly incident.

However, Mohammad Amin, a local, blamed the irresponsible armed groups for the carnage, saying loose law as well as carrying arms by irresponsible armed men is what resulted in the barbaric killing.

In the war-battered country where the government control is weak in the countryside, hundreds of irresponsible armed groups are roaming freely and mostly creating law and order problems.

This is not the first time that such an incident happened in Dehsalah district, nor will it be the last time, Amin said, adding that the armed groups besides committing robbery have killed at least a dozen people, all civilians in Dehsalah and adjoining areas over the past few months.

Prior to the incident, three civilians had been killed in Kashanabad village and three others killed in the neighboring Fuj parish over the past two weeks, Amin said.

Ordinary Afghans usually suffer at the hands of irresponsible armed groups in the conflict-ridden country as they kidnap people for ransom and are also involved in a variety of other criminal activities.

A day earlier on Sunday, a group of unknown armed men abducted 11 passengers of a bus in Dand-e-Ghori area of the same province, Baghlan and took them to some unknown locations, police said.