Sardar Mohammad Zaidi, the imam of the Fatima Mosque in Kandahar, Afghanistan, was nearing the tip of Friday prayers when gunfire and explosions signaled the beginning of the second assault on a Shia mosque in every week.
The mosque, also called the Imam Bargah Mosque, is the most important of about 40 Shia mosques in Kandahar, Afghanistan’s second largest metropolis within the south of the nation close to the border with Pakistan.
Zaidi, who has been the mosque’s imam for 20 years, advised Reuters by phone, “We were almost done praying, at the end of the prayer, I heard gunshots.” He mentioned 4 suicide bombers tried to interrupt right into a mosque stuffed with round 3,000 worshipers, however two had been shot by guards on the entrance earlier than they may detonate their explosives.
Confused, two others had been in a position to enter earlier than blowing themselves up, killing no less than 35 worshipers and injuring 68. Zaidi mentioned the toll might have been a lot worse. “If all four managed to get in, it would have been disastrous, and you can imagine what would happen,” he mentioned.
After an Islamic State assault on a Shia mosque within the northern metropolis of Kunduz final week that killed 80 individuals, the Shia neighborhood, which accounts for about 10-15% of the nation’s inhabitants, has been shaken.
An Afghan man inspects the within of a mosque after a suicide bomber attacked town of Kandahar in southwest Afghanistan on October 15, 2021. (AP)
IS claims accountability
Islamic State claimed accountability for the suicide bomber assault in an announcement posted by the group’s Amaq information company on Friday. Two Islamic State fighters shot lifeless mosque guards, blew themselves up and blew themselves up between two teams of worshipers, one in all which included about 300 individuals, the assertion mentioned.
Even earlier than the group launched an announcement, Zaidi mentioned he had little question that Islamic State was behind the assault. But the truth that he attacked Kandahar, the middle of the Taliban motion ruling Afghanistan, was a shock.
“When the Taliban got here, we didn’t suppose that such incidents would occur in Kandahar. “There had been incidents in Kabul, Kunar, however we by no means thought this may occur in Kandahar. Nobody warned us about any hazard.”
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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
