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A roadside bomb killed a Pakistani construction worker and wounded six of his compatriots on Sunday in Afghanistan’s southern city of Kandahar, local police said.

According to Foreign Media Reports, Last week, five Pakistani employees of the same Pakistani construction firm, CITA, were gunned down by unknown people in another part of Kandahar.

Kandahar is the next target of an offensive by NATO-led forces after foreign and Afghan troops secured a district regarded as a key Taliban stronghold from the militants in ajdacent Helmand in recent weeks.

Before the Taliban’s ouster in a U.S.-led invasion in 2001, Kandahar was the traditional and spiritual seat of power of the militants.

No one has claimed responsibility for the deadly attack of last week or Sunday’s one on the Pakistani nationals in Kandahar.
An explosion has shaken Afghanistan’s southern city of Kandahar.

It is not immediately clear what caused the blast and whether there were any casualties, security sources said.

The explosion occurred close to Pakistan’s consulate in the eastern part of the city killing 1 Pakistani worker and six others got injured and the explosion was heard till distant places and people were in a state of shock.

It comes after a series of suicide bomb attacks overnight by Taliban that killed some 35 people in several parts of Kandahar, the expected next target of a Nato-led offensive.

Afghan police said the city was hit by four explosions during the night followed by gunfire.

The blasts were near a hotel, a prison, a mosque and at a crossroads in the centre of Kandahar, deputy provincial police chief Mohammad Shad Farooqi said.

President Hamid Karzai’s half-brother Ahmad Wali Karzai said the biggest explosion was a suicide strike at Kandahar’s prison.

Ahmad Wali Karzai, the head of Kandahar’s provincial council, believed insurgents were trying to release prisoners.

“The main target was the prison. The prison is very well guarded,” he said.

“It was a very big explosion. It was a huge explosion.”

Two of the other blasts took place near the provincial council building, including one about 200 metres from Ahmad Wali Karzai’s home.

Another struck near the police chief’s headquarters, he said.

The other blasts appeared to be diversions designed to draw police away from the main attack on the prison, he said.

Afghan police and Afghan special forces were deployed, and there was an exchange of gunfire, the police source said.

The head of the city’s main hospital said the dead included civilians and police, and dozens more had been wounded.

Kandahar has suffered several Taliban attacks and the surrounding areas are increasingly under the control of insurgents.

Before the Taliban was ousted in a US-led invasion in 2001, Kandahar was the militants’ traditional and spritual seat of power.