The death toll from the explosion that occurred in the western part of Kabul city, Dasht-e-Barchi, on Saturday, January 6, increased to five, with 15 others wounded, according to the Taliban spokesperson for Kabul police.
The explosion targeted a civilian minibus in the Qala-e-Nazir area, populated by the Hazara-Shia religious group. The Taliban had previously reported a death toll of 2 and 14 injured. However, in his recent interview with TOLOnews, Khalid Zadran, the Taliban spokesperson for Kabul police command said, “In the Dasht-e-Barchi area, in a minibus, 5 compatriots were killed in a blast due to explosives placed in it.”
The Islamic State-Khorasan Province (IS-KP), an affiliate of ISIS in the region, claimed responsibility for the blast stating that its members detonated an explosive device on the bus transporting Shiite Muslims.
Among the blast’s victims was Khadija Panahi, a 31-year-old female graphic artist and graduate of Kabul University’s Faculty of Arts. Our sources revealed that she had been preparing for the TOEFL test to apply for a master’s degree scholarship abroad, with her test scheduled for today, January 8.
This was the first targeted attack on the Hazara-Shia community in the country in 2024. The Dasht-e-Barchi area has been a repeated target for the ISIS affiliate in Afghanistan in the past years. The terrorist group has carried out major attacks on worship places, schools, and hospitals, and has also attacked other Hazara regions across the country. Last November, in the same area of Kabul, IS-KP targeted a minibus which killed seven people and wounded 20 others. A month earlier, the terrorist group carried out two bomb attacks targeting a sports club in the area and a gathering of Shiite clerics in the northern province of Baghlan. The blasts killed six people and seven Shia clerics, respectively.
The latest attack has prompted vigorous reactions from the UN mission in Afghanistan, armed anti-Taliban groups, and Afghan politicians, they denounced the attack as un-Islamic and an act of terror. The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) in a statement on X called for an end to targeted attacks on civilians and “greater protection for Afghanistan’s Hazara community and accountability for perpetrators.” UNAMA reported a slightly higher casualty figure, stating that at least 25 members of Kabul’s Hazara community were killed or wounded.
The National Resistance Front (NRF), an armed group opposing the Taliban, asserts that those responsible for such attacks aim to plunge Afghanistan into sectarian violence. “Given the history of these violent attacks, which have systematically targeted Afghanistan’s Shia and Hazara communities across the country, the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan believes that the people behind these attacks harbor hostility towards a specific religious and ethnic group,” NRF stated in a Persian statement. “It’s evident that they aim to incite perilous sectarian strife among the Muslim community in Afghanistan,” the group added.
Abdullah Abdullah, former Chair of Afghanistan’s High Council for National Reconciliation, said that targeting civilians goes against Islamic teachings and fundamental human values. Hamid Karzai, the former president of Afghanistan, labeled the attack as a “terrorist, un-Islamic, and anti-human act.” Mohammad Karim Khalili, leader of the Islamic Unity Party of Afghanistan, urged the Taliban to promptly expose those responsible. Khalili warned that the Taliban’s failure to identify the perpetrators would imply their complicity in the incident.
Following their takeover of Afghanistan, the Taliban has consistently reassured its commitment to uphold the Doha Agreement signed between the group and the United States in Doha in 2020. The agreement includes commitments to prevent the use of Afghanistan soil by any international terrorist groups or individuals, including the IS-KP. Similar commitments have been made to neighboring countries multiple times. However, ISIS affiliates have persistently attacked religious minority groups, particularly the Hazara-Shia, in Afghanistan over the past two years.
Last year, Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian claimed that Islamic State militants from Syria, Libya, and Iraq had relocated to Afghanistan, heightening regional concerns. The Taliban was quick to refute the allegation and reaffirmed a commitment to combatting terrorist organizations.
The ISIS affiliates have also targeted high-ranking Taliban officials in the past two years. In March of last year, IS-KP claimed responsibility for the killing of the Taliban governor of the northern Balkh province, Mohammad Dawood Muzammil. In June, they killed Nisar Ahmad Ahmadi, the group’s governed for northeastern Badakhshan province.
