A well-known Afghan politician and at least 20 other people have been killed in a suicide attack in the northern province of Samangan, police say.
Ahmad Khan Samangani was attending a wedding party for his daughter in Aybak, the provincial capital, when the blast happened.
The attacker, posing as a guest, greeted Mr Samangani before detonating his explosives, a witness said.
Mr Samangani, an ethnic Uzbek, was a key military commander and an MP.
He was known as a supporter of President Hamid Karzai and a rival of Gen Abdul Rashid Dostum, a former regional civil war commander in northern Afghanistan and currently one of the country's most prominent Uzbek politicians, the BBC's Bilal Sarwary, in Kabul, says.
The Taliban have denied carrying out the attack.
Laghman bombing
The hall where the wedding was taking place was packed with about 100 people, a witness said.
In addition to those killed, more than 40 other people were wounded in the attack, according to police.
Ghulam Mohammad Khan, the criminal director of the provincial police, told Associated Press that the dead included a senior Afghan National Army commander and the provincial intelligence chief.
A senior regional police commander related to Mr Samangani was among those injured, he added.
Northern Afghanistan is relatively peaceful compared to the east and south of the country, where militant attacks are frequent.
The attack comes a day after a prominent female Afghan politician was killed in a bomb attack in eastern Laghman province.
The politician, Hanifa Safi, was the provincial head of the Afghan ministry of women's affairs and was known as a leading advocate of fair treatment for women.
-BBC
