Member of Wolesi Jirga or the lower house the parliament and former commerce minister Sayed Mustafa Kazimi was among the dead

(Pajhwok)

Faizullah Zaki, a lawmaker from the northern province of Jowzjan, says at least six members of parliament were killed. Hospital officials say more than 90 people were killed. Baghlan's intelligence chief, Abdurrahman Sayedkhail, says the death toll is so high that it was not immediately possible to provide an accurate number.

Ahmad Behzad, a member of the lower house of the Afghan parliament from the western Afghan city of Herat, speaking today to RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan about the death toll from a suicide bomb attack against a parliamentary committee today:

"[Among those killed by this attack was] Mr.Sayed Mustafa Kazemi, the head of national economy commission of the lower house of parliament. According to the reports we have received so far, other members of parliament who were killed include engineer Matin, Nazukmir Sarfaraz, Saif U-Rahman and Haji Sayed Zairf."

Kazemi had served as minister of Commerce in Afghan President Hamid Karzai's transitional administration.

After his election to the parliament in 2005, Kazemi founded the first opposition parliamentary group in post-Taliban Afghanistan -- Estiqlal-e Milli, or "the National Independence Group."

Kazemi also was the spokesman of the United Afghan National Front -- a political alliance comprised mostly of individuals who had fought together against the Taliban regime as the former United Front (aka Northern Alliance).

All of the slain lawmakers were members of the parliament's National Economic Committee, which is tasked with overseeing reconstruction efforts in the country.

(RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan/Reuters, AP,
AFP)