{"id":13861,"date":"2023-10-13T16:08:32","date_gmt":"2023-10-13T16:08:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/7-killed-in-suicide-attack-on-afghan-shia-mosque-official\/"},"modified":"2023-10-13T16:08:32","modified_gmt":"2023-10-13T16:08:32","slug":"7-killed-in-suicide-attack-on-afghan-shia-mosque-official","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/7-killed-in-suicide-attack-on-afghan-shia-mosque-official\/","title":{"rendered":"7 killed in suicide attack on Afghan Shia mosque: official"},"content":{"rendered":"

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At least seven people were killed and 15 more wounded when a suicide blast tore through a Shia mosque in northern Afghanistan on Friday, the Taliban government said.<\/p>\n

The number of bomb blasts and suicide attacks has reduced dramatically since the Taliban ended their insurgency after seizing power in August 2021, ousting the US-backed government.<\/p>\n

However, a number of armed groups \u2014 including the regional chapter of the Islamic State organisation \u2014 remain a threat.<\/p>\n

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast, which rang out as Shia worshippers gathered for Friday prayers at the Imam Zaman mosque in Pol-i-Khomri, the capital of Baghlan province.<\/p>\n

\u201cSecurity and investigative forces went to the area of the incident to investigate how this heartbreaking incident happened,\u201d said provincial information and media chief Mustafa Asadullah Hashimi.<\/p>\n

\u201cInvestigations are still ongoing,\u201d he said in a statement confirming the casualties.<\/p>\n

A source at Baghlan Provincial Hospital \u2014 who asked to remain anonymous \u2014 put the tally higher, saying 19 bodies and 40 wounded patients had been brought to the facility so far.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of the dead and wounded were taken to other private hospitals as well,\u201d he told AFP<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Local resident Abdul Hamid said he heard a \u201cterrible sound\u201d as the bomb detonated.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the explosion, a large number of martyrs and injured people were transferred to the hospital,\u201d he said. \u201cThe situation is not good at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another local said security forces were ushering people away from the area.<\/p>\n

Fear and confusion<\/h2>\n

One resident who feared his father and brother were in the blast zone was struggling to find out their fate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe situation around the hospital is very bad. Everyone is trying to find their family members but no one is allowed to go inside the hospital,\u201d he told AFP<\/em>, also speaking anonymously.<\/p>\n

The regional chapter of the IS group has in the past targeted Shias they consider heretics.<\/p>\n

The Taliban and IS share an austere Sunni ideology, however, Kabul\u2019s new rulers have pledged to protect ethnic and religious minorities.<\/p>\n

IS is also crusading to establish a global \u201ccaliphate\u201d \u2014 Islamic empire \u2014 instead of the Taliban\u2019s more modest goal of ruling an independent Afghanistan with formal ties to other countries.<\/p>\n

Since the Taliban returned to government IS has staged attacks on diplomatic missions in Kabul, and ministry buildings, as well as assassinated two provincial governors.<\/p>\n

They are also blamed for the September 2022 bombing of a study hall in a minority Shia neighbourhood of the capital, killing at least 53 people \u2014 including 46 girls and young women \u2014 according to the United Nations.<\/p>\n

IS seeks to \u201cprovoke sectarian conflict and destabilise the region\u201d and since 2022 has conducted more than 190 suicide bombings, leaving some 1,300 injured or dead, a UN Security Council report said in May.<\/p>\n

The presence of IS fighters in Afghanistan has also stoked tensions with neighbouring Pakistan, which claims they are crossing the border to strike targets on its soil.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At least seven people were killed and 15 more wounded when a suicide blast tore through a Shia mosque in northern Afghanistan on Friday, the Taliban government said. The number of bomb blasts and suicide attacks has reduced dramatically since the Taliban ended their insurgency after seizing power in August 2021, ousting the US-backed government. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13862,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2023\/10\/132101410a3622f.jpg?r=210153","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13861\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}