es Nuremberg, January 12, 2024

Our former Kabul correspondent Ali Behzad, now safely in Bavaria with his family thanks to AEJ support, helplessly watches the continuing assaults on the Hazara. 

He writes: The United Nations Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) has called for “further provision of security for the Hazara community” after last weekend’s ISIS attack on a minibus. UNAMA said the explosion in Dasht-e Barchi, west of Kabul, left “at least 25 dead and wounded from the Hazara community”.

Sources in Kabul say the victims were mostly young, educated people, among them Khadija Panahi, a graphic designer and animator.

Mrs Panahi, 31, was a graduate of Kabul’s Faculty of Arts and died while returning home from an English course. Her body could not at first be identified due to the severity of the explosion

In recent months a series of armed and suicide attacks has occurred in Hazara areas, responsibility mostly being claimed by ISIS. Last October a suicide bomber left at least 7 dead and 15 injured after  an explosion in the Shia Imam Zaman Mosque in Pul Khumri, capital of Baghlan Province. Responsibility was again claimed by ISIS.

Persecution of the Hazara reached a peak under the rule of the “Iron Emir” Amir Abdul Rahman just over a century ago, with the massacre of more than 60% of the Hazara population.

These were three other young people killed by ISIS at the weekend:

• The outrageous treatment of girls and women in Iran is being echoed in Afghanistan, according to the UN. See today’s message: UNAMA DEEPLY CONCERNED OVER DETENTIONS OF AFGHAN WOMEN AND GIRLS
  

  :