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KABUL – An assault claimed by Islamic State on a Sikh temple within the Afghan capital Kabul on Saturday killed at the very least two folks and injured seven, officers mentioned, one other lethal incident in a spate of violence concentrating on minorities and locations of worship.
On an affiliated Telegram channel, the native department of Islamic State mentioned the assault was in response to insults leveled on the Prophet Mohammed, an obvious reference to remarks by an Indian authorities spokeswoman which were condemned by many Muslim-majority international locations.
Gray smoke billowed over the world in pictures aired by home broadcaster Tolo. A Taliban inside spokesman mentioned attackers had laden a automobile with explosives however it had detonated earlier than reaching its goal.
A temple official, Gornam Singh, mentioned there have been round 30 folks contained in the constructing on the time.
A spokesman for Kabul’s commander mentioned one Sikh worshipper had been killed within the assault and one Taliban fighter was killed as his forces took management of the world.
Since taking energy in August, the Taliban say they’ve elevated safety in Afghanistan and eliminated the nation from militant threats, though worldwide officers and analysts say the danger of a resurgence in militancy stays.
Islamic State has claimed some assaults in latest months.
The group mentioned a suicide attacker stormed the temple on Saturday morning armed with a machine gun and hand grenades after killing its guard.
Different militants fought for greater than three hours with Taliban fighters who tried to intervene to guard the temple, concentrating on them with 4 explosive units and a automobile bomb, the militant group mentioned.
The blast on Saturday was broadly condemned as one in all a sequence of assaults concentrating on minorities, with a press release from neighbouring Pakistan saying its authorities was “severely involved on the latest spate of terrorist assaults on locations of worship in Afghanistan.”
The U.N.’s mission to Afghanistan mentioned in a press release that minorities within the nation wanted to be protected and India’s President Narendra Modi mentioned on Twitter he was “shocked” by assault.
Sikhs are a tiny non secular minority in largely Muslim Afghanistan, comprising about 300 households earlier than the nation fell to the Taliban. Many have since left, in response to members of the group and media.
Like different non secular minorities, Sikhs have been a continuous goal of violence in Afghanistan. An assault at one other temple in Kabul in 2020 that killed 25 was additionally claimed by Islamic State.
Saturday’s explosion adopted a blast at a mosque within the northern metropolis of Kunduz yesterday that killed one particular person and injured two, in response to authorities.
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