The post Dozens dead after suicide bombers target Afghan minority group appeared first on PBS NewsHour. One detonated himself, the other was shot by police before he was able to blow himself up, they said.
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The attack was the deadliest to hit Kabul in 15 years of civil war.
Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack. They were gathered together as free citizens, protected by courageous security forces who also fell victim in the line of duty.
Declaring Sunday a day of national mourning, Mr Ghani said: “I promise you I will take revenge against the culprits”.
The Taliban, who are in the middle of their annual summer offensive and are more powerful than IS, strongly denied any involvement in the attack.
The office of the United Nations assistance mission in Afghanistan issued a statement conveying its “deepest condolences and solidarity” and noting that people of all ethnicities across the country were still queueing at hospitals to donate blood for the wounded.
The original plan was for the power line to run through the Bamiyan Province, where most of the country’s Hazaras live. In 2011 a suicide bomber attacked worshippers marking Ashura, when Shiites commemorate the death of the prophet Mohammed’s grandson, killing 70 people. During Taliban rule in the late 1990s, many of them fled to Pakistan, Iran and Tajikistan.
The Saturday attack has raised concerns about sectarianism, and the Interior Ministry announced a ban on public gatherings and demonstrations in a potential bid to avoid any inter-communal strife. A White House statement says what makes it even more despicable is that it targeted a peaceful protest.
“This deadly attack was a retaliation by Daesh, who have taken a beating in recent months from our Afghan forces and American drone strikes”, Naimatullah Ghafari, a member of Afghanistan’s Parliament, said by phone, using the Arabic acronym for the group. As numerous country’s leaders came forward to express their anger over this terrorist attack, they made it clear that something like this will only strengthen their resolve and continue their mission of supporting the government and the people of the country.
The powerful UN Security Council also issued a statement, condemning “in the strongest terms” the “heinous and cowardly” terror attack yesterday.
But activist Jawad Sady Lakoo said they’re fighting ethnic, not religious, discrimination.
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The attack put further pressure on Ghani’s struggling government.
