A suicide bomb attack targeting a visiting group of parliamentarians in the northern Afghan province of Baghlan on Tuesday killed at least 30 people including at least six parliamentary deputies, the Afghan Health Ministry confirmed.
Over 100 were injured in the blast at a sugar factory, a doctor in the provincial capital of Pul-e-Khumri said.
Parliamentary sources said among the deputies killed was Mustafa Kazimi, spokesman of the opposition United Front party, who was head of the delegation.
President Hamid Karzai denounced the "act of terrorism" which was carried out by "the enemies of Afghanistan," presidential spokesman Humayun Hamidzada said.
The spokesman said that among the dead were six parliamentary deputies, part of a delegation inspecting a new sugar factory in the province when the attack occurred.
Deputy Trade Minister Ziauddin Zia, who was a member of the delegation, said a number of those killed were schoolchildren.
The Interior Ministry meanwhile confirmed that the attack was the work of a suicide bomber.
According to parliamentary sources, 13 of the 18 deputies who were part of the delegation had been killed or injured.
The parliamentarians were on a fact-finding visit to learn about the region's economic progress when the attack occurred.
Baghlan belongs to the northern regional command of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), while a military- civilian reconstruction team from Hungary is working in the city.
The sugar factory, to the opening of which the delegation had travelled, had been rebuilt with German support.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier expressed shock at the "cowardly and insidious attack."
"The direction of this terrorist attack is clear - it is intended to discourage those prepared to work for the reconstruction of Afghanistan in order to improve the country's future prospects," he said.
"We must not give in to this. The people of Afghanistan are counting on us not to abandon them. The rule of terror exercised by the Taliban must not be allowed to gain the upper hand a second time," the minister said in a statement.
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