Kabul-Taliban officials, Afghanistan, said bombings at mosques and religious schools in northern Afghanistan killed at least 33 people, including religious school students, on Friday.
Zabihullah Mujahid, Taliban’s Deputy Minister of Cultural Information, said the bombing in the town of Imam Saheb in Kunduz injured an additional 43 people, many of whom were students.
No one immediately claimed responsibility, but on Friday Afghanistan’s ISIS affiliates claimed a series of bombings that took place the day before. More injured scores.
Previously, Kunduz police spokesmen killed two people and injured six at the Malawi Basir Ahmad Mosque and Madrasa Compound in Immersahib. Mujahideen later tweeted more casualties, “We condemn this crime …. We would like to extend our deepest sympathies to the victims.”
The bombing on Friday is the latest in a series of deadly attacks across Afghanistan. The Mujahideen called the perpetrators of the Kunduz attack “sedatives and evil elements.”
The United Nations called this attack “terrifying.” “The killings must now be stopped and the perpetrators must be brought to justice,” Afghanistan’s Deputy Special Representative Ramiz Arakbarov said in a tweet.
Since taking power last August, the Taliban has proven to be an unmanageable security challenge for Afghanistan’s religious-led government, known as the Islamic State of Korasan or IS-K. We have fought against emerging ISIS affiliates.
Last October, IS-K also brutalized a Shiite mosque in northern Kunduz, killing at least 50 people and injuring more than 100. The state where the deadly affiliate is headquartered.
In a statement on Friday, IS-K stated that the explosive device that destroyed the Mazar-i-Sharif Side-Ken Mosque was hidden in a bag left inside among dozens of worshipers. rice field. When they knelt in prayer, it exploded.
“When the mosque was filled with prayers, the explosives exploded remotely,” an IS statement said, claiming 100 people were injured.
The Taliban states that Mazar-i-Sharif has arrested a former IS-K leader in the capital, northern Balkh. Zabihullah Noorani, director of information and culture in Balkh, said Abdul Hamid Sangaryar was arrested in connection with the mosque attack on Thursday.
IS-K has been relatively inactive in Afghanistan since November last year, but is adjacent to Afghanistan in the last few weeks, targeting a Shiite Islamic community that has been abused by Sunni militants. We are stepping up our attacks in Pakistan.
Earlier this month, two bombs exploded in Kabul’s Shiite Dashtebarki district, killing at least seven students and injuring several others.
IS-K established its headquarters in eastern Afghanistan in 2014 and was the worst in Afghanistan, including a vicious assault at a maternity hospital and school that killed more than 80 girls in 2021, a few months before the Taliban. Was accused of some of the attacks. I seized power.
IS-K also carried out a brutal bombing outside Kabul International Airport in August 2021 killing more than 160 Afghans who were pushing them into the airport to flee the country. Thirteen US military personnel were also killed for overseeing the last withdrawal of the United States and the end of the 20-year war in Afghanistan.
In recent months, IS-K has also stepped up its attacks in neighboring Pakistan, targeting Shiite mosques in the northwestern city of Peshawar in March. More than 65 worshipers were killed. Emerging affiliates have also claimed several deadly attacks on Pakistani troops.
In Faisalabad, central Punjab, Pakistan, local police issued a threatening warning on Thursday saying “I found out that IS-Khas is planning to carry out terrorist activities in Faisalabad,” and warned people “extremely.” Be on the alert. ” The police warning did not elaborate.
Meanwhile, Pakistani soldiers were killed in southwestern Balochistan late Thursday after terrorists attacked security forces. No one claimed responsibility. The area is targeted by both IS-K and the violent Pakistani Taliban terrorists known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), headquartered in neighboring Afghanistan.
According to the United Nations Education Fund (UNICEF), safe shelters for terrorist groups in Afghanistan have raised concerns about Pakistan, which bombed Pakistan earlier this month, killing at least 20 children.
Pakistan has not confirmed a strike, but has warned the Afghanistan Taliban to suspend the territory used to cross the border and attack Pakistan.
In another incident, five children were killed while playing unexploded ordnance in Faryab, northern Afghanistan, on Friday. In one case, three brothers died when they discovered an unexploded ordnance and tried to dismantle it. In a second incident in another village, two children, ages 7 and 8, were killed playing with the device, said Shamsullah Mohammadi, Head of Information and Culture in Faryab.
Afghanistan is one of the heaviest mining nations in the world after more than 40 years of war, including two invasions, one by the former Soviet Union and one by a US-led coalition, and is scattered with unexploded ordnance.
Kathy Gannon and Mohammad Shaob Amin
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