KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan police on Monday shot a suspected suicide bomber as he approached a demonstration in the center of the capital Kabul, officials said.

The man was shot following a challenge by police as he approached a gathering in the Shar-e Naw park in Kabul’s main business area, police spokesman Hashmat Stanekzai said, adding that the man was apprehended but died of his wounds.

His apparent target was a demonstration urging that exiled Vice President Abdul Rashid Dostum be allowed to return to Afghanistan from Turkey.

The apparent attempted bombing follows an attack claimed by Islamic State on the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development late on Sunday that killed at least seven people.

Elsewhere, the Taliban attacked a police checkpoint in the Ghani Khel district of eastern Nangarhar province, killing seven police, the provincial governor’s office said in a statement.