Attack On Shia Mosque In Afghanistan – Free PDF Download

What has happened?

• A suicide bomb attack on a mosque in the Afghan city of Kunduz has killed at least 50 people, officials say, in the deadliest assault since US forces left.
• Bodies were seen scattered inside the Said Abad mosque, used by the minority Shia Muslim community.
• More than 100 people were injured in the blast in the northern city.

Who is responsible?

• The Islamic State group said it was behind the attack. Sunni Muslim extremists have targeted Shias who they see as heretics.
• IS-K, the Afghan regional affiliate of the IS group that is violently opposed to the governing Taliban, has carried out several bombings recently, largely in the east of the country.
• The Islamic State group, bitter rivals of the Taliban, has repeatedly targeted Shiites in a bid to stir up sectarian violence in Sunni-majority Afghanistan.
• In a statement released on its Telegram channels, the Islamic State said that an IS suicide bomber “detonated an explosive vest amid a crowd” of Shiite worshippers who had gathered inside the mosque.
• The statement identified the bomber as “Muhammad al-Uyguri”, implying he was a member of China’s mainly- Muslim Uyghur minority.

What the Taliban says?

• 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 and said that 46 people had died and 143 were wounded.
• One witness, Rahmatullah, said 300 to 400 worshippers were inside.
• “We assure our Shiite brothers that in the future, we will provide security for them and that such problems will not happen to them,” Matiullah Rohani said.
• The United Nations said Friday’s bombing was a “third deadly attack this week apparently targeting a religious institution” and was part of a “disturbing pattern of violence”.
• IS targeted a funeral prayer service attended by a number of senior Taliban leaders in Kabul on Sunday, and
• There have been a spate of smaller attacks in the eastern provinces of Nangarhar and Kunar, where IS previously had its stronghold.

Persecuted community

• Shiites 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 ISIS suicide attacker struck a Shiite mosque as worshippers gathered for evening prayers in the west of Kabul, killing 56 people and wounding 55 including women and children.
• And last May, a series of bombings outside a school in the capital killed at least 85 people, mostly young girls.
• More than 300 were wounded in this attack on the Hazara community.

Who are Hazaras?

• The Hazaras are an ethnic and religious minority group largely found in the rugged and mountainous central Afghan region of Hazarajat.
• They are believed to be descendants of the founder of the Mongol empire, Genghis Khan, and his army that overran the entire region during the 13th century.

• Around 1773, the mountainous region of Hazarajat in modern-day central Afghanistan was annexed and made a part of the territories of the Afghan Empire under Pashtun ruler Ahmad Shah Durrani.
• The Sunni Muslim majority under the Pashtun ruler resulted in marginilisation of the Shiite Hazara community, to the extent that in the 18th and 19th century,
• They were forced to leave fertile lowlands in central Afghanistan and make the arid mountainous landscape their new home.
• They are targetted by the Taliban because they are primarily Shia Muslims, as opposed to most Afghans who follow the Sunni branch of Islam.
• Their distinct Asiatic features and use of a Persian dialect called Hazaragi also sets them apart from the rest of the country.

conclusion

• Friday’s attack, if it has been carried out by IS, would mark a grim expansion of their activities into the north of the country.
• The Taliban say they have arrested dozens of members of IS and are believed to have killed others suspected of links to the group, but publicly they have also played down the threat IS poses.
• Many Afghans hoped that the Taliban’s takeover would at least herald a more peaceful, if authoritarian, era.
• But IS represents a significant threat to the Taliban’s promise of improved security.
• If the Taliban, as is likely, is unable to address these concerns, it will struggle to gain domestic legitimacy, and we could see the emergence of a new armed resistance.

Q) Which of the following is not matched correctly?

1. National Commission for Women: 1992
2. National Minorities Commission: 1993
3. National Backward Classes Commission: 2002
4. National Child Rights Protection Commission: 2007

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