Russia’s news agency TASS, citing a report posted on Twitter of the General Directorate of Intelligence (GDI), the Afghan national intelligence, security and spy agency under the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, reported on March 27 that the GDI claims that nationals of Tajikistan were involved in a suicide attack in Mazar-e Sharif, the capital of Afghanistan’s northern Balkh province, in which Balkh governor Mohammad Dawood Muzammil was killed.

TASS says Muzammil was killed in his office on March 9.  

According to the report twitted by the GDI, an operation carried out in Faryab province resulted in the arrest of all members of the group involved in the terrorist attack in Mazar-e Sharif.  During this operation, it was reportedly proved that members of the group are nationals of Tajikistan and they were sent to Afghanistan recently for committing that terrorist attack.   

Media reports say Muzammil was killed inside his office in a suicide attack that was later claimed by the ISIL terror group.

The killing of Mohammad Dawood Muzammil reportedly marked one of the highest-level attacks since the Taliban stormed back to power in 2021. A second person also died in the attack.

“Two people, including Mohammad Dawood Muzammil, the governor of Balkh, have been killed in a blast this morning,” police spokesman Asif Waziri said on march 9, according to Al Jazeera. 

The ISIL terror group claimed responsibility for the attack, the group’s Amaq agency reported. , ISIL said one of its soldiers had managed to enter the building and detonate his suicide belt.

The Voice of America (VOA) says Muzammil is the second-most senior Taliban official killed since the militants returned to power in 2021 as the United States and NATO troops left the country after two decades of war.

Last December, a car bombing killed the Taliban police chief of northeastern Badakhshan province.  That attack was claimed by the Islamic State terror group's Afghan affiliate, known as Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K).

According to VOA, Muzammil had led the fight against ISIL in his previous posting as governor of the eastern province of Nangarhar.  He was moved to Balkh last October.

The militant group, often referred to as Daesh or IS-K, has recently intensified attacks in Afghanistan.  The violence has killed hundreds of people, including minority Shiite community members and Taliban officials as well as clerics.