Jihadist violence is once again putting Afghanistan into mourning. Seven people were killed Tuesday evening in the explosion of a bus in a district of western Kabul, Afghan police announced.
“An explosion took place on board a bus transporting civilians in the Dasht-e-Barchi district, seven of our compatriots were martyred and 20 others were injured,” announced a spokesperson for the police, Khaled Zadran, on X. The Islamic State (IS) in Afghanistan shortly after claimed responsibility for the attack.
A previous attack on October 28
The Dasht-e-Barchi district is mainly populated by the Hazara Shiite community. This minority is often the target of attacks by the jihadist group. On October 28, IS claimed responsibility for a bomb attack which, according to a revised report, left four dead and seven injured the day before in a shopping center in Dasht-e-Barchi.
The explosion ripped through a sports club high up in the shopping center, blowing out all the partitions in the space, shattering windows and causing damage across the block.
A community persecuted for decades
Afghanistan’s Shiite Hazara community is regularly the subject of attacks in this predominantly Sunni Muslim country. She has been persecuted for decades, targeted by the Taliban during their insurgency against the former US-backed government, as well as by ISIS.
The Afghan Taliban authorities claim to have security in the country under control, but dozens of attacks targeting civilians have been carried out over the past two years. Most were claimed by ISIS-K, the local chapter of the Islamic State group. Hundreds of people have been killed or injured in these attacks, mainly targeting Shiite, Sufi and Sikh religious minorities, foreigners or foreign interests, and the Taliban themselves.
The presence of IS fighters in Afghanistan is also raising tensions with neighboring Pakistan, which says the jihadists are crossing the border to strike targets on its territory.