Multiple bomb blasts in Afghanistan left at least a dozen dead and several injured

Asia-Pacific, News April 22, 2022 , by IRIA No Comments

At least 16 people died and dozens were left severely injured after a bomb blast in Sai Doken mosque rocked the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif.

The Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL) claimed responsibility for the attack which targeted Afghanistan’s Shia Hazara Community. The bomb hit the mosque as worshipers were praying during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The timing of the blast was specifically set in the last ten days of the holy month, as many Shia Muslims gather in the city of Mazar-i-Sharif to visit the grand mosque of Hazrat Ali Mazar, a shrine associated with the fourth Muslim caliph.

“The soldiers of the caliphate managed to place a booby-trapped bag” inside the mosque and detonated it later when the mosque was packed with worshipers, the Islamic State claimed in its statement.

Dr. Ghawsuddin Anwari, the head of the main hospital in northern Mazar-e-Sharif, told the press that at least 10 people were killed and 40 injured.

Separately, in a similar incident in Kunduz city, at least four people were killed and 18 were wounded by a blast targeting a vehicle, which was carrying mechanics working for the Taliban government.

The spokesperson of Afghanistan’s interior ministry said that the blast in Kunduz city was aimed at a vehicle carrying Afghan military mechanics. A school bus also became the target of the remote-controlled bomb that was hidden in a bicycle parked along the roadside.

A number of bombings in Afghanistan have taken place since the Taliban took control in August 2021, and Islamic State has claimed the responsibility for most of such blasts.

*^{A Taliban fighter standing guard outside the site of a bomb explosion inside a mosque in Mazar-e-Sharif province of Afghanistan, on April 21, 2022. (Image Credit: AP)}*

Earlier on Tuesday, April 19, a similar incident claimed the lives of at least six people when two blasts outside a school shook the Shia Hazara neighborhood in Kabul city.

In May 2020, at least 85 people, mainly girl students, were killed and about 300 wounded when three bombs exploded near a school in the Shia Hazara-dominated Dasht-e-Barchi neighborhood of Kabul. No group claimed the responsibility for the attack at the time, however, later in October that year the Islamic State admitted that the attack was carried out by one of their suicide bombers.

Afghanistan’s Shia Hazara community makes for about 10 to 20% of the total 38 million population. The community has been an easy and apparent target for the Islamic State and similar terrorist organizations for a long time in the war-torn country.

The Taliban forces have been making frequent raids to capture the Islamic State members spread throughout the country. Taliban officials insist that they have managed to defeat the Islamic State, however, the group still remains one of the key challenges that the Taliban administration is currently facing.

Richard Bennett, the UN’s Special Rapporteur for Afghanistan on human rights, condemned the attacks. “Today, more explosions rocks Afghanistan. Systematic targeted attacks on crowded schools and mosques calls for immediate investigation, accountability and end to such human rights violations,” Bennett said in a tweet.