Protest over killings tied to Islamic State
KABUL — Afghan security forces fired warning shots outside the presidential palace on Wednesday to disperse thousands of protesters angry over slayings suspected to be carried out by militants linked to the Islamic State.
The demonstration — one of the largest in recent years in Afghanistan — highlighted growing discontent at the government’ s inability to quell groups such as the Taliban and Islamic State-inspired factions. It also underscored unease among the country’s minorities, which are increasingly fearful of being targeted by militants.
The protest was held days after the bodies of seven members of the Hazara minority group were found with their throats slit in the southern province of Zabul. The dead included three women and a child. Provincial officials suspect militants linked to the Islamic State were behind the killings.
Afghan television showed protesters climbing the walls of the presidential compound. Security forces fired into the air, forcing down those who had managed to scale the wall. The burst of gunfire lasted nearly a minute, prompting protesters on the road to scatter.
News reports said the gunfire wounded several marchers.
The protesters, estimated at more than 10,000, were demanding stronger government action to combat what many Afghans fear is a rise in sectarian violence.
The Hazaras, an ethnic minority comprising mostly Shiite Muslims, have long suffered persecution under various Afghan governments, particularly during the Taliban rule in the 1990s.
On Wednesday, the mainly Hazara demonstrators carried the bodies of the victims in coffins through the streets. They chanted antigovernment slogans and demanded the resignations of President Ashraf Ghani and his partner in the power-sharing government, Abdullah Abdullah.