By RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi
October 14, 2023
The Islamic State extremist group claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing on October 13 that Taliban police said killed seven Shi’ite worshippers and wounded 15 others during Friday prayers.
The group issued a statement claiming responsibility after the bombing and saying the death toll was 50 with dozens more injured. Islamic State’s regional affiliate, Islamic State in Khorasan, has targeted Afghan minority Shi’a in many past large-scale attacks.
The attack on October 13 happened at the Imam Zaman mosque in the city of Pol-e-Khomri, the capital of Baghlan Province, according to the Taliban-led government’s police command in the province.
In a statement on October 14, the Shi’a Scholars’ Council of Afghanistan demanded that the perpetrators be found and punished.
The statement said the Taliban should protect the security of religious and cultural centers in order to prevent similar incidents, which have escalated since the Taliban seized power in August 2021.
Naseer Ahmed Faiq, acting head of the Afghan UN mission, who has not been recognized by the UN, said on X, formerly Twitter, that the attack on civilians has no religious or humanitarian justification.
The United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, condemned the attack, saying on X that dozens of Shi’ite worshippers were killed.
Rina Amiri, the U.S. special envoy for the rights of Afghan women and girls, expressed her condolences to the victims’ families, saying on X that the attack was “a threat to the diversity that defines Afghanistan.”
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, UNAMA, also responded on X, posting a statement saying that it was investigating the incident and expressing “deep sorrow and condolences to all those killed and wounded.”
Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the head of the High Council of National Reconciliation in the previous government, Abdullah Abdullah, said in separate statements that the bombing was against Islamic and human values and expressed condolences to the families of the victims.