A bomb exploded in a mosque in southern Afghanistan during evening prayers last night, wounding 10 people.
Mr Khalid Pashtun, a spokesman for Kandahar's governor, accused remnants of the ousted Taliban regime for planting the bomb.
He said the mosque's preacher, Mawlavi Abdullah Fayaz, had recently rejected a Taliban call for a jihad, or Muslim holy war, against the government.
"Fayaz was the target because he also heads the council of Kandahar's Ulema," Mr Pashtun said, referring to the city's council of clerics. "They had said that jihad is not applicable against the government," he said.
Kandahar is a former bastion of the Taliban, who were driven from power by a US-led offensive in late 2001, in the wake of the September 11th attacks on the United States.
There has been a number of attacks on international and government troops and aid agencies in Kandahar and other parts of southern Afghanistan in recent months.
Pashtun said the Taliban have begun a campaign of targeting people who back the government of President Hamid Karzai.