MEHTARLAM-(MaraviPost)-At least eight people were killed and 28 others injured following suicide attack targeting an Afghan provincial governor Rahmatullah Yarmal in Mehtarlam city, capital of Afghanistan’s eastern Laghman province on Monday, October 5, 2020.

Interior ministry spokesperson Tareq Arian confirmed the news in a statement.

According to the governor’s spokesman Assadullah Daulatzai, the convoy was attacked at 10:00 a.m. local time when the governor was driving to his office on Monday morning when the attackers rammed an explosives-filled vehicle into the convoy.

Report by AFP news indicated that those killed were four of his bodyguards and four civilians, 26 civilians and two policemen of the convoy were wounded and the governor escaped the scene unhurt.

The attack comes as President Ashraf Ghani on Monday left for Doha to meet with Qatari officials, three weeks after the launch of landmark peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban.

Talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government negotiators, aimed at ending Afghanistan’s 19-year conflict, have stalled over disagreements on how to frame a code of conduct that will guide the broader talks.

On Saturday, a suicide bomber detonated a vehicle full of explosives at the entrance an administrative building in eastern Nangarhar province, killing 15 people, mostly civilians, officials said.

In recent attack on the governor, no one has claimed responsibility yet but Taliban are active in the region.