KABUL (SW) – CEO Abdullah Abdullah has condemned the deadly armed assault on two mosques in New Zealand.
The death toll in mass shootings at two mosques full of worshippers attending Friday prayers has increased to 49, New Zealand Police Commissioner Mike Bush said.
Condemning Friday's deadly assault on mosques in New Zealand, President Ashraf Ghani called on all countries of the world to unitedly fight indiscriminately against the menace of terrorism.
Abdullah expressed sadness over the barbaric terrorist attack. “Terrorism has no religion & no legitimate cause. Our thoughts & prayers go out to the victims of this savage act. We stand in solidarity with New Zealand Gov & people in condemning this crime”, he tweeted.
Afghan Ambassador to New Zealand, Australia and Fiji, Wahidullah Waissi confirmed that one Afghan origin man was also shot by the gunmen.
“I am receiving terrible news out of Christchurch mosques’ shootings. My thoughts are with the family of an Afghan origin who‘s been shot and killed at this heinous incident and with three other Afghans who are injured. Watching this closely as the situation is still unfolding,” he wrote on his Twitter handle.
Earlier, New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern had said that 40 people had been killed while 20 were injured in the deadly attack and called it one of the country's "darkest days”.
This can "only be described as a terrorist attack", she said in a second press conference following the shootings in New Zealand's city of Christchurch, adding that the national security level has been changed from low to "high".
She also urged people not to share the video of the attack as well as the manifesto of the alleged shooter and added that websites, where pictures and videos had been shared, were working on taking them down.
Authorities detained four people and defused explosive devices in what appeared to be a carefully planned attack.
Police took three men and a woman into custody after the shootings, which shocked people across the nation of 5 million people.
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