Taliban supporters and senior figures held their first mass rally near Kabul on Sunday, but the show of strength was overshadowed by a bomb blast targeting mourners inside the Afghan capital.

In a sign that the Taliban victory has not brought an end to violence after Afghanistan’s 20-year conflict, an explosion killed several people outside Kabul’s Eid Gah mosque.

A Taliban soldier who said he saw the explosion said two people were killed and eight wounded. He said there appeared to have been two bombers and added that one of these was killed and the other caught trying to escape.

Local media quoted the ministry of the interior as saying eight people had been killed and 20 wounded but one Taliban official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the final total would be higher.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid had said on Saturday that a prayer ceremony would be held at the mosque for his mother following her recent death. He made no reference to this on Sunday as he tweeted that the blast had killed several civilians in the area. A cultural commission official, who asked not to be named, told AFP that “three people in connection with the blast”, he said.

According to the official, the device was placed at the entrance to the mosque and detonated as mourners were leaving after offering condolences to Mujahid and his family.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. However, since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in mid-August, attacks by Islamic State group militants against them have increased.

IS maintains a strong presence in the eastern province of Nangarhar and considers the Taliban an enemy. It has claimed several attacks against them, including several killings in the provincial capital of Jalalabad.

Haqqani addresses rally

The blast, which could be heard across the centre of the capital, came shortly after the new Taliban “interim government” staged a rally just outside the capital, from which they were driven out in 2001 in a US-led operation launched after the 9/11 attacks.

Sunday’s pro-Taliban rally in Kohdaman township in the hilly outskirts of Kabul was attended by 1,500 men and boys.

“This is the day we waited for,” said Khalil Haqqani, the new minister for refugees who in 2011 was labelled a terrorist by the United States with a $5 million bounty on his head. He is a prominent leader of the Haqqani militant network founded by his brother Jalaluddin.

“We have achieved our goal, but it requires protection,” he told the gathering, with his rifle leaning against the lectern.

“My advice to the world is that they leave Afghanistan to Afghanistan.”

Classes to be segregated

An official with Afghanistan’s ministry of higher education said men and women will be segregated when university classes resume on October 9, after the Taliban and Kabul University disputed reports that female students will be temporarily barred.

“They’ll resume their education in separate classes as planned,” Mohammad Edris, assistant secretary to the minister of higher education, said by phone from Kabul on Saturday.

Separately, Pakistan’s interior minister Sheikh Rashid defended the government’s move to hold talks with banned terror group Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) for “reconciliation”, saying the negotiations are for “good Taliban”.

Defending the government’s move, the minister said the offer was not for militants who were responsible for bloodshed in the country, including the December 2014 massacre in the Army Public School in Peshawar which left over 150 people dead, Dawn newspaper reported.

“We know very well who’s good and who’s bad. Anyone who thinks we are not aware of that, he’s mistaken, he doesn’t have sense,” he said.