The family of a soldier who was killed in Friday’s attack on the Afghan National Army’s 209 Shaheen Corps Headquarters in Balkh province said they were shocked by the large number of dead bodies they saw and that they want justice to be served on those who failed to prevent the attack. 

“My demand from government is that those who did this to the Shaheen base should not be punished but they should vanish. Suspending them is not enough. They should be hanged to death,” said Ahmadullah, a resident of Urgun district in Paktika, who lost his son in the army base attack.

Government has meanwhile still not provided details about the incident.

Ministry of Defense (MoD) has described the casualties as 135 dead and 64 wounded.

“Our martyrs from the 209 Shaheen Corps were 135 as well as we had 64 wounded. We have announced to the media about the number of those martyred and wounded based in their provinces,” the MoD deputy spokesman Mohammad Radmanish said.

Earlier a number of reliable sources said government had decided to keep the details of casualties on the army base attack secret.

“Apart from the issue that they are not announcing the death toll, they are not taking any steps to prevent such incidents in the future,” said Nazari Paryani, a journalist.