Afghanistan remains the country most impacted by terrorism for the fourth consecutive year, despite attacks and deaths falling by 75 per cent and 58 per cent, respectively, Global Terrorism Index (GTI) reported on Tuesday, according to Afghanistan-based Khaama Press.

The GTI report, however, states that the Index does not include acts of state repression and violence by state actors. As such, acts committed by the Taliban are no longer included in the report’s scope since they took control of the country. As per the FTI, Afghanistan recorded 633 fatalities in 2022, despite terrorism-related deaths declining by 866 in 2022, a 58 per cent improvement over 2021.

“Afghanistan’s drop can largely be attributed to the Taliban taking control of the country after the fall of Kabul in August 2021. As the Taliban are now the state actor in much of Afghanistan, their attacks fall outside the scope of the GTI’s definition of terrorism,” the report said.

GTI reported that the Islamic State-Khorasan (Daesh) has emerged as “the most active terrorist group” in Afghanistan following the Taliban takeover of the country and is responsible for the deaths of 422 people in 2022, accounting for almost 67 per cent of the total terrorism-related deaths in the country for the year, Khaama Press reported.

Recently, at least one person was killed and eight others injured in a bomb blast in a Shiite cultural centre in Afghanistan’s northern Balkh province on Saturday, VOA News reported.

Speaking to VOA, a local police spokesman, Mohammad Asif Waziri said that the blast had targeted a ceremony honouring the Afghan media in the provincial capital, Mazar-i-Sharif. Waziri said that five journalists and three children were among those injured. Provincial officials and religious clerics were among the guests at the event.

Taliban-led Interior Ministry spokesperson Abdul Nafi Takor said a planted explosive device caused the blast. TOLO News reported that one of its journalists was among the victims. No one claimed responsibility for the attack, as per the news report.

The blast was reported two days after a Taliban-appointed governor in northern Afghanistan’s Balkh was killed in a blast that took place in his office, as per a news report. Balkh’s Security Department’s appointed spokesman, Mohammad Asif Waziri confirmed that Mohammad Dawood Muzamil, the Taliban-appointed Governor, was killed in that explosion, as per the TOLO News report.