Herat Mosque Attack Leaves Six Hazara Civilians Dead, Taliban Accused of Inaction

At least six civilians, including a woman and a child, were killed in a brazen attack on a mosque in Herat, Afghanistan. The April 29th shooting targeted worshipers leaving Imam Zaman Mosque in Shahrak-e-Mohammadiyah also known as Shahrak-e-Andisha area in Guzarah district, an area heavily populated by Hazaras, an ethnic minority group. Local sources identified Shaikh Jawid, the imam of the mosque and local community representative as one of the victims among the dead.
The Taliban’s Interior Ministry confirmed the attack but attributed it to an unknown gunman using a Kalashnikov. Still, according to the local sources, there were two of gunmens who fled the scene on motor-bikes after the attack.
While ISIS has historically targeted Shiites and Hazaras, particularly in Herat, they haven’t claimed recent attacks.
Last year, a string of similar attacks in Herat left Hazara-Shiite’s religious scholars and civilians dead. These attacks, like the recent one, were unclaimed, leading some to suspect involvement by extremist elements within the Taliban. The previous Afghan government had repeatedly accused the Taliban of involving and facilitating such attacks.
Further fueling tensions, the anti-Taliban Liberation Front of Afghanistan claims Taliban-backed groups orchestrated the attack to sow sectarian discord. They accuse the Taliban of providing “direct support” to “international terrorist networks” and allowing Afghanistan to become a “safe base” for them.
These accusations are bolstered by past statements from Herat’s Taliban governor, Noor Ahmad Islamjar, who has disparaged Shi’a Islam. In a book published about three years ago, he had called the Shiite religion a Takfiri and blasphemy sect and its followers as infidels.
Since the Taliban takeover, ISIS attacks in Afghanistan against Hazaras and Shiites have continued, especially in Herat province.
Last year, at least five Hazara civilians, including two religious scholars, were killed and three others were injured following an armed attack in the Hazara dominated area of Jebra-eel in Herat city. Also, three other Hazara religious scholars were killed in two other attacks in Jebra-eel and Injil district of Herat.