By Ellaha Rasa
Six Hazaras have been killed and two injured in a drive-by shooting in the Jibril township in Herat city.
Residents of Jibril reported that a white Toyota Fielder without number plates drove high-speed through the Kora-e-Milli area and opened fire on a family in a three-wheeler taxi on Friday December 1 around 12.30pm.
“We could not recognize the number of attackers and who they were,” Ali*, who witnessed the shooting, said.
Sources say the armed assailants with their faces covered forced the three-wheeler to stop, and all its occupants to get out at the end of Shahrak-e-Sabz.
According to the source, one of the armed men asked the group where they had been, but did not allow the passengers to speak before they shot them dead.
The source says that Pol-e-Pashtun resident Sakhidad Ghulami was killed along with his wife Najiba and son Mohammad Taqi Sadeqi. Three people travelling with the family were also killed including the Imam of Hazrat Abulfazl mosque Mohammad Mohsen Hamidi, the Imam of Rasul Azam mosque Mohammad Taqi Sadeqi, and a women from Kora-e-Melli called Hakima.
According to the source, the taxi driver Sayed Hussain was seriously injured in the shooting and has been transferred to Iran for treatment. Another boy who is one of Sakhidad’s relatives, was hit by a bullet in his hand, but has since been discharged from hospital.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack and no arrests have been made.
Taliban officials in Herat have confirmed there was a shooting and that six people were killed and two others injured.
photo: submitted to Rukhshana media.
It’s the latest attack on ethnic Hazaras which has fueled a wave of public concern among many Hazaras who feel the de facto government does little to protect them.
“Their [the armed men] goal was to destroy humanity and cause enmity, to kill people and Muslims,” Ali said.
“Considering that five Shia Hazara religious scholars have been killed in the last forty days, then it’s likely the target of this assassination is also the Shia religious scholars.
“These kind of attacks are a big threat to residents in Hazara areas. How long will these attacks continue? The Taliban have the responsibility to ensure the security of the people.”
Only a week earlier, two Hazara clerics were assassinated in the center of Jibril on Thursday, November 23. Rajab Akhlaqi and Khadim Hussain Hedayati were killed by armed men riding a motorcycle. No one has been arrested in relation to this incident.
A month before that, another Hazara cleric was killed in Herat by unknown assailants.
A Jibril resident, who wished to remain anonymous, told Rukhshana Media that after the December incident, several Taliban officials, including Taliban’s deputy governor for Herat Hayatullah Mohajer Farahi visited Jibril.
“Taliban officials came to assure the people of Jibril that they will act to provide security and will not allow similar events to occur in Shia scholars in this area,” the resident said.
Taliban governor for Herat Noor Ahmad Islamjar has also met with a number of Shiite scholars in his office, local sources say.
Taliban-controlled Bakhtar news agency reported that Mr Islamjar said that the aim of attacks on Shiites and Hazaras is to create division among the people Afghanistan, and assured the scholars that the Islamic Emirate, the name the Taliban calls its government, is committed to ensuring the security of all citizens.
A deeply concerned and defenseless people
But residents of the township do not trust the Taliban’s assurances.
Jibril resident Fatima, 22, was shocked by the targeted attacks on Hazaras in Herat and asked why the Taliban did not prevent it.
Another resident Mohammad Hadi blamed the Taliban for the assassinations.
“Jibreel has become unsafe and the assassination of religious scholars has caused more fear and panic among the people. The Taliban are responsible for the insecurity and so for the assassinations in the township,” Mr Had said.
During the previous government, Hazaras were not immune to attacks and these areas where they live witnessed many explosions, suicide attacks, and shooting of civilians.
Some Hazaras feel that at least under the previous government they had a voice and could fight back. People were allowed to protest against insecurity and call on the government to protect them. But under the Taliban, protests and marches have been banned and weapons for self-defence have been forced to be handed over. Including the weapons from those protecting Shia mosques.
Fears of a gradual Hazara genocide
Many prominent Afghans have reacted to the most recent shooting with horror.
Leader of the Islamic Unity Party of Afghanistan Mohammad Karim Khalili wrote on his Facebook page that these attacks are a “horrible crime” and could amount to genocide of the Hazara and Shia communities.
“For genocide and ethnic cleansing, the criminals systematically and purposefully target influential clerics,” he said. “Educated people, students, athletes, and even ordinary citizens of the Hazara and Shia people throughout the country.”
He said that the Taliban regime is trying to deny the killing of Hazaras with the slogan of providing security to citizens, and called on the Taliban to take the killings of Hazaras seriously.
Former Afghan MP Arif Rahmani wrote on X, “Serial genocidal assassinations in Herat province are a sign of a sinister conspiracy to massacre and displace and ethnically cleanse the people. The killing machine of terrorists sheds fresh blood from our people every day at the peak of our people’s helplessness.”
Former governor of Badghis under Ashraf Ghani’s government Hussamuddin Shams wrote on his Facebook, “The Jibril region has always been a peaceful and green security region of Herat, which has been settled with the hard work and sweat of our mostly Hazara citizens.”
The Afghanistan Liberation Front, which conducts guerilla attacks against the Taliban, condemned the attack on the Hazaras in Herat province and called it a continuation of “the Hazara genocide”.
