KABUL: China has demanded that the Taliban government in Afghanistan take effective measures to protect Chinese nationals after seven people were killed in a blast in Kabul on Monday. Six Afghans and one Chinese national were killed, and several others were injured in the blast at a Chinese restaurant in a heavily-guarded part of the city centre. Guo Jiakun, a spokesperson for China’s foreign minister, told a press briefing on Tuesday that China has requested the Afghanistan government to spare no effort in treating the injured. On Monday, videos shared on social media showed smoke billowing from a large hole torn in the facade of the restaurant building, while debris littered the street outside. Demand comes after militant group Islamic State claimed the Kabul blast “We have received 20 people at our hospital,” Dejan Panic, the Afghanistan director of humanitarian group EMERGENCY, said in a statement, adding that seven were dead on arrival. “Among the wounded are four women and a child.” The Taliban took control of war-torn Afghanistan in 2021 and said it would restore security, but bomb attacks have continued, many of them claimed by the local arm of the Islamic State group. Militant group Islamic State claimed the Monday’s blast that tore through a Chinese-run restaurant in the commercial Shahr-e-Naw area, police spokesperson Khalid Zadran said. The Afghan branch of Islamic State militant group said in a statement it was carried out by a suicide bomber. The restaurant serving the Chinese Muslim community was jointly run by a Chinese Muslim man, Abdul Majid, his wife, and an Afghan partner, Abdul Jabbar Mahmood, Zadran said. “The nature of the explosion is unkn­own so far and is being investigated,” he said. The Amaq news agency said the domestic arm of Islamic State had put Chinese citizens on its list of targets, citing “growing crimes by the Chinese government against Uyghurs”. Rights groups accuse Beijing of widespread abuses of Uyghurs, a mainly Mus­­lim ethnic minority group numbering about 10 million. Published in Dawn, January 21st, 2026