ISLAMABAD, Oct 16 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Pakistan strongly condemned the terrorist attack at a mosque in Kandahar city, capital of Afghanistan’s southern Kandahar province, which reportedly killed more than 30 and wounded dozens of others on Friday.
“Pakistan condemns terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, including despicable attacks on places of worship,” the Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
The government and people of Pakistan convey their support, and heartfelt condolences, to the people of Afghanistan and stand in solidarity with them in this hour of grief, the statement added.
According to local media, the explosions occurred inside a Shiite Muslim mosque at midday when hundreds of worshippers were offering Friday prayers.
A suicide bomber attacked a Shiite mosque in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar during Friday
prayers, Taliban officials said, killing at least 33 people and injuring 74 others.
The assault came just a week after a suicide attack on Shiite worshippers at a mosque in the northern city of Kunduz, which was claimed by the Daesh group.
There has not yet been any claim of responsibility for the assault in Kandahar, the spiritual heartland of the Taliban.
“Our initial information shows it was a suicide bomber who blew up himself up inside the mosque. We have launched an investigation to find out more,” a local Taliban official said.
The Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K)group, a bitter rival of fellow Sunni Islamist movement the Taliban,
claimed responsibility for the attacks against Shiite worshippers, whom it regards as heretics.
The Taliban, which seized control of Afghanistan in mid-August after overthrowing the US-backed government, has its own history of persecuting Shiites.
But the new Taliban-led government has vowed to stabilise the country, and in the wake of the Kunduz attack promised to protect the Shiite minority now living under its rule.
Shiites are estimated to make up roughly 10 percent of the Afghan population. Many of them are Hazara, an ethnic group that has been persecuted in Afghanistan for decades.
In October 2017, an IS suicide attacker struck a Shiite mosque in the west of Kabul, killing 56 people and wounding 55. — NNN-AGENCIES
