KABUL (SW) – The United Nations in Afghanistan condemned in the strongest terms Friday’s deadly attack in a Sufi mosque in the Darulaman area of Kabul, which reportedly resulted in scores dead and wounded.
The attack on the Khalifa Sahib Mosque is the latest in a series of indiscriminate assaults on civilian targets in the capital and provinces, and directly affected at least two UN staff members and their families who were inside the mosque at the time of the attack.
“Today’s attack, carried out on the last Friday of the Holy month of Ramadan and on the eve of the Eid-ul-Fitr, totally disregards human lives and religious sanctity. No words are strong enough to condemn this despicable act, targeting a place of worship, as Muslims across Afghanistan prepare to celebrate the Eid,” said Mette Knudsen, the UN Secretary-General’s Deputy Special Representative for Afghanistan. “Recent attacks against civilians, targeting ethnic and religious minorities, represent a disturbing trend in Afghanistan. These violations of international humanitarian and human rights laws must end immediately.”
The latest attack in Kabul follows a spate of attacks in recent weeks in mosques and schools in the major cities of Kabul, Kunduz and Mazar-e-Sharif, which appear to have specifically targeted members of the Hazara, Shia and Sufi minorities, including yesterday’s attack in Mazar-e-Sharif which also resulted in several killed and injured, said the UNAMA.
Spokesman for the Kabul police chief, Khalid Zadran, told Salam Watandar that the death toll from a blast at the mosque in Kabul’s 6th police district had risen to 10 and the number of injured to 30. Zadran said the target of the blast was civilians and that some groups wanted to use the same attacks to present Afghanistan to the world as an insecure country.
Zadran said intelligence and security agencies had launched a serious investigation into the blast.
No group including the Taliban has claimed responsibility for the blast.
This is on top of the fact that during the month of Ramadan, various provinces of the country witnessed explosions and attacks that reportedly killed and injured hundreds of people.
ENDS
