Daud Ahmadi, spokesman for the provincial governor, said four security forces were among those killed. He said another 38 people, including at least five small children, were wounded in the explosion.

Dozens of shops and nearby homes were destroyed or damaged, and the death toll could rise, he said.

Abdul Saleh, 29, who was wounded in the attack, said the sound was "so loud, like strong thunder." He said he was knocked unconscious and later woke up in a hospital bed.

The explosives were found in a cluster of car mechanic shops. It was unclear who placed them there.

Elsewhere in Afghanistan, the Taliban launched a wave of attacks late Monday in the eastern Ghazni province, killing at least 14 police, including a district police chief and a reserve unit's commander, according to provincial council member Hassan Reza Yusoufi.

The attacks continued on Tuesday in four districts, according to Arif Noori, spokesman for the provincial governor, who said 12 other security forces were wounded.

Latifa Akbari, the head of the provincial council in Ghazni, said Taliban fighters stormed several checkpoints in the Dih Yak and Jaghatu districts, where all the fatalities occurred.

The Taliban claimed to have captured the Jaghatu district headquarters and several police checkpoints in Dih Yak.

The Taliban also attacked a checkpoint in the eastern Paktia province, killing at least two police, according to Gen. Gul Agha Rohani, the provincial police chief. Three other police were wounded in the attack Monday night, he said.

The Taliban have stepped up attacks across the country since announcing their annual spring offensive last month. An Islamic State affiliate has also carried out a number of large bombings in recent months, mainly targeting the country's Shiite minority.

Yesterday's meeting took place days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the 330 MW Kishanganga hydroelectric project in Jammu and Kashmir, amid protests from Pakistan which claims that the project on a river flowing into Pakistan will disrupt water supplies.

Pakistan's Foreign Office had, on Friday, voiced concern over the inauguration of the hydroelectric project, saying inauguration without resolution of dispute between the two countries will tantamount to violation of the Indus Waters 1960 that regulates the use of waters in the shared rivers.

"The Indus Waters Treaty is a profoundly important international agreement that provides an essential cooperative framework for India and Pakistan to address current and future challenges of effective water management to meet human needs and achieve development goals," a World Bank spokesperson told PTI.

"The meetings are discussing concerns raised by the Pakistan delegation and opportunities within the treaty to seek an amicable resolution," the spokesperson said.

No other details about the nature of Pakistani grievances were made available by the World Bank officials.

The discussions are scheduled to continue today.

The Pakistani delegation is led by Attorney General, Ashtar Ausaf Ali. Islamabad had been raising objections over the design of the hydel project, saying it is not in line with the criteria laid down under the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) between the two countries. But, India says the project design was well within parameters of the treaty.

The project, located at Bandipore in North Kashmir, envisages diversion of water of Kishan Ganga river to underground ppowerhousethrough a 23.25-km-long head race tunnel to generate 1713 million units per annum.

The Kishanganga project was started in 2007 but on May 17, 2010, Pakistan moved for international arbitration against India under the provisions of the Indus Waters Treaty.

The Hague-based International Court of Arbitration allowed India in 2013 to go ahead with construction of the project in North Kashmir and upheld Indias right under the bilateral Indus Waters Treaty to divert waters from the Kishanganga for power generation in Jammu and Kashmir. The international court, however, decided that India shall release a minimum flow of nine cubic metres per second into the Kishanganga river (known as Neelam in Pakistan) at all times to maintain environmental flows.

Pakistan is building a 969 MW Neelum-Jhelum hydroelectric project downstream. The Pak Foreign Office in a statement in Islamabad last week said it was seriously concerned about the inauguration of the hydroelectric project.

"Pakistan believes that the inauguration of the project without the resolution of the dispute is tantamount to violation of the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT)," it said.

"Pakistan reiterates that as the custodian of the Treaty, World Bank must urge India to address to Pakistan's reservations on Kishenganga Hydroelectric Project (KHEP)," the statement said. 

Prime Minister Modi said the strategic partnership between India and Russia has now been elevated into a "special privileged strategic partnership" which is a "very big achievement" as he met President Putin in this Black Sea coastal city for their first informal summit to discuss a range of bilateral topics, including defence cooperation as well as global issues of common concern. 

He said the seeds of the 'strategic partnership' sown by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and President Putin have now grown into a "special privileged strategic partnership" which is a "very big achievement" in itself. 

"I am grateful to President Putin who invited me for an informal meeting and hence, in the long friendship of ours, this is a new aspect that has been attached to our relationship," Modi said. 

Also Read: PM Modi in Sochi: 'Russia played a major role in helping India get permanent membership in SCO'

"You have added a new aspect of informal summit in the bilateral relationship which I think is a great occasion and creates trust," he said.

"The Monday talks were very intense," Russia's official Tass news agency quoted Lavrov as saying. 

"I am confident that the ongoing informal contacts between the leaders of Russia and India will be useful and will help define the further guidelines for our development and strategic partnership," he said. 

"There was a discussion of various areas of our specific cooperation at the regional and global level," Lavrov said. 

Russian President Putin and Prime Minister Modi paid special attention to the economic talks, he said. 

"We discussed the whole spectrum of our particularly privileged strategic partnership, paid special attention to the economy, noted the steady growth of trade turnover," the minister said. 

Ahead of their summit, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said President Putin will discuss Russia-India military cooperation with Prime Minister Modi, amidst US sanctions on Russia. 

"It can be supposed that the military-technical cooperation issue will be discussed [at the meeting between Putin and Modi,]" Tass news agency quoted Peskov as saying.
Earlier, official sources said the possible impact of the US sanctions against Russia under the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) on Indo-Russia defence cooperation might also figure during the talks between Modi and Putin.

The CAATSA is a United States federal law that imposed sanctions on Iran, North Korea, and Russia. It includes sanctions against countries that engage in significant transactions with Russia's defence and intelligence sectors. 

India is not going to allow its defence engagement with Russia to be dictated by any other country, the sources said, adding New Delhi has been lobbying with the Trump administration on the issue. 

India could face US sanctions for purchasing high value military defence items, in particular state-of-the-art S-400 Triumf missile defence system, from Russia under the act. 

In his opening remarks, Modi also thanked Russia for playing a major role in helping India get a permanent membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. India and Pakistan were admitted last year into the organisation.

"We are working together on International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) and BRICS," Modi said. 

He also congratulated Putin for becoming the President for the fourth time with overwhelming majority. 

"Starting from the year 2000 when you took office, our relation has been historic...," Modi said. 

Welcoming Prime Minister Modi to Sochi, Putin said his visit would give a fresh impetus to bilateral ties. 

Military cooperation

He said Russia and India maintain a high strategic level of partnership, with close cooperation between the two countries' defense ministries. 

"Our defense ministries maintain very close contacts and cooperation. It speaks about a very high strategic level of our partnership," Putin said. 

He also hailed joint activities of the two countries in the area of foreign politics, in particular within the United Nations, BRICS and the SCO. 

Putin also said that last year there was a considerable increase in mutual trade and this year for the first several months it was an increase of more than 17 per cent. 

The Russian Foreign Minister also said that Moscow and New Delhi will strongly oppose attempts to politicise the work of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). 

Watch: PM Modi meets Vladimir Putin in Sochi

Russia and India had confirmed they "will strongly oppose attempts to politicise the work of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons," Lavrov said.
He pointed out that "we have seen" such attempts "recently." 

His comments came following the OPCW last month said it had confirmed Britain's findings on the military-grade nerve agent used in the attack on ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the UK, which London said came from Russia. 

Russia last month convened a meeting of the OPCW and made a bid for a joint investigation into the attempted murder, but the request was rejected. 

Britain blames Russia for the nerve agent attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia on March 4, which has sparked an international diplomatic crisis and expulsion of scores of diplomats from London and Moscow.