Hindustan Times ST (Mumbai) - Live
Over 100 killed in Af suicide attack
Officials say initial findings showed it was a suicide attack that targeted Shia Muslims at a mosque in Kunduz city
KUNDUZ: A suicide bomb attack on worshippers at a Shia mosque in the Afghan city of Kunduz killed dozens of people on Friday, in the bloodiest assault since US forces left the country.
Scores more victims from the minority community were wounded in the blast, which has not been claimed but appears designed to further destabilise Afghanistan in the wake of the Taliban takeover.
The extremist Islamic State group, bitter rivals of the Taliban, has repeatedly targeted Shiites in a bid to stir up sectarian violence in Sunni-majority Afghanistan.
Video footage showed bodies surrounded by debris inside the mosque that is used by people from the minority Shia Muslim community.
“Initial information indicates more than 100 people killed and injured in a suicide blast inside the mosque,” the United Nations’ mission to Afghanistan said in a tweet.
Dost Mohammad Obaida, the deputy police chief for Kunduz province, said the blast killed or wounded at least 100 people, adding that the “majority of them have been killed”. He said the attack may have been carried out by a suicide bomber who mingled among the worshippers. “I assure our Shiite brothers that the Taliban are prepared to ensure their safety,” Obaida said, adding that an investigation was underway.
Matiullah Rohani, director of culture and information in Kunduz
for Afghanistan’s new Taliban government, confirmed to AFP that the deadly incident was a suicide attack.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid had earlier said an unknown number of people had been killed and injured when “an explosion took place in a mosque of our [Shia] compatriots” in Kunduz.
Residents of Kunduz, the capital of a province of the same name, told AFP the blast hit a Shia mosque during Friday prayers, the most important of the week for Muslims.
Zalmai Alokzai, a local businessman who rushed to Kunduz provincial Hospital to check whether doctors needed blood donations, described horrific scenes. “Ambulances were going back to the incident scene to carry the dead,” he said.
An international aid worker at the MSF hospital in the city told AFP there were fears the death toll could rise even further.
“Hundreds of people are gathered at the main gate of the hospital and crying for their relatives but armed Taliban guys are trying to prevent gatherings in case another explosion is planned,” he said.
Graphic images shared on social media, which could not immediately be verified, showed several bloodied bodies lying on the floor. Pictures showed plumes of smoke rising into the air over Kunduz.
Another video showed men shepherding people, including women and children, away from the scene. Frightened crowds thronged the streets.
Aminullah, an eyewitness whose brother was at the mosque, told AFP: “After I heard the explosion, I called my brother but he did not pick up.
“I walked towards the mosque and found my brother wounded and faint. We immediately took him to the MSF hospital.”
A female teacher in Kunduz told AFP the blast happened near her house, and several of her neighbours were killed. “It was a very terrifying incident,” she said.
Kunduz’s location makes it a key transit point for economic and trade exchanges with Tajikistan. It was the scene of fierce battles as the Taliban fought their way back into power this year. Often targeted by Sunni extremists who view them as heretics, Shia Muslims have suffered some of Afghanistan’s most violent assaults, with rallies bombed, hospitals targeted and commuters ambushed.
Shia make up roughly 20% of the Afghan population. Many of them are Hazara, an ethnic group that has been heavily persecuted in Afghanistan for decades.
In October 2017, an IS suicide attacker struck a Shia mosque in the west of Kabul, killing 56 people. And in May this year, a series of bombings outside a school in the capital killed 85 people - mostly young girls.