Afghanistan holds funeral for MPs

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The funerals have taken place in Kabul of five Afghan MPs who were killed in a bombing on Tuesday in the northern province of Baghlan.

They were buried beside the Afghan parliament under tight security.

Funerals for the rest of the victims, including a sixth MP and dozens of schoolchildren from Baghlan, took place on Wednesday.

The blast was the most serious aimed at politicians since the Taleban were ousted from power in 2001.

Car checks

Thousands of people came to the parliament in Kabul to pay their respects to the MPs killed in Tuesday's bombing.

<a class="" href="/1/hi/in_pictures/7082771.stm"> In pictures: Bomb funerals </a>

Security was tight. Armed police were on the streets, checking cars and directing traffic.

Since parliament was restored after the fall of the Taleban, two other MPs had been assassinated in separate incidents, but this is by far the worst violence to target politicians.

The MPs came from different provinces of Afghanistan, different ethnic groups and religious traditions.

A cleric at the funeral sang prayers of the Hazara people, traditionally the underdogs of Afghan society, for Mustafa Kazimi, the most prominent of the dead MPs.

Persistent claims

Neither a perpetrator nor a motive has been identified for the bombing.

However, there are persistent claims - including from some MPs - that the bombing was not a suicide attack, but an explosion from a rocket or a roadside bomb.

In Baghlan, one man has been arrested and is being questioned.

If it was not a suicide bombing, then the range of suspects widens considerably, to take in local warlords or even economic disputes over the forthcoming privatisation of a cement factory.