Hazaras in Herat die in continued targetted attacks
Farshid Aram authored this report for Zan Times, translated into English by Rustam Seerat.
Rasoul received a call at around 1:30 p.m. on December 1, 2023, informing him that his mother had been in an accident in the Kora-e-Milli area of Herat city, where she’d gone to a relative’s home with her brother and son-in-law. The 20-year-old rushed to the scene.
Until he arrived there, Rasoul* had assumed it was a traffic accident. The reality was drastically different: “I saw my mother soaked in a pool of blood. She had been shot and killed, and my uncle and his son-in-law were injured,” he tells Zan Times. “After my mother’s death, I am completely alone,” Rasoul says, noting that he is now responsible for his 14-year-old sister and 10-year-old brother as his father works in Iran.
Three eyewitnesses and the head of the Jibrael Ulema Council in Herat inform Zan Times that six people lost their lives, and two were injured, during that shooting in the Kora-e-Milli area. (The Taliban’s Ministry of Interior also confirmed the news on social media.) The terrorists appear to have targetted two Shia Mullahs: Mohsen Hamedi, and Mohammad Taqi Sadeqi. Rasoul’s mother, another Hazara woman and two other men were killed because they were travelling in the same rickshaws as the clerics.
In recent months, in addition to the two Shia Mullahs killed on December 1, three other Shia Mullahs have been assassinated in Herat province: on October 23, Eid Mohammad Etemadi was killed, while Rajab Akhlaqi and Khadem Hussein Hedayati were targetted for death on November 23. There are no reports of the Mullahs in any political or military activities.
Their deaths are the latest in a series of bombings and assassinations by terrorists on the Hazara people, primarily in Kabul and Herat. The attacks have become so frequent that human rights activists started using the hashtag “#StopHazaraGenocide” online, reaching more than 30 million posts in recent months.
On December 4, 2023, UNAMA, the United Nations Mission in Afghanistan, expressed concern over the increase in the latest targeted killings of Hazara Shia Mullahs in Herat. UNAMA wrote on X/Twitter account: “The last month in#Afghanistan has seen increased violence against Shia Hazara community, in Kabul, Baghlan and most recently in Herat. UNAMA expresses condolences to victims, calls for investigations, accountability for perpetrators, and increased protection for those at risk.” So far, no individual or group has claimed responsibility for these chain killings.
These attacks in the Hazara-dominated areas of Herat have sparked waves of concern and anger. On December 1 and December 4, hundreds of people from the district accompanied the bodies of the deceased as they took to the streets in two protest marches against the lack of security from the Taliban and targeted massacres of Hazara people in the province. They walked around five kilometres toward the provincial administration building but eventually gathered at the Jibrael Mosque after the Taliban prevented them from approaching their administrative headquarters.
“It is clear that the Taliban have either intentionally or unintentionally failed to ensure the safety of Hazara people. How is it possible for five religious scholars and four civilians to be killed, yet they cannot take any action?” Wali Ahmad Rezai*, a community elder in the Jibrael district of Herat, tells Zan Times. Despite the Taliban’s slogans, he believes the regime is unable to guarantee security and that people’s anger will increase if such “chain killings” continue.
Faizullah Dadgar*, a Hazara religious scholar in Herat, says that the Taliban have not heeded warnings that Hazaras are at risk of targeted assassinations. “We told the governor that the best way is for the mosques and some important Hazara institutions in Herat to be armed so they can defend themselves — there is no solution other than this. Otherwise, again, we will be attacked, and our population will be killed,” he tells Zan Times.
When ISIS terrorists attacked Hazara mosques in Herat between 2016 and 2019, the former republic government did arm defenders of the mosques. However, the Taliban collected those weapons after they seized control, promising that such terrorist attacks were a thing of the past. Though terrorist attacks against the Hazara people are again increasing, the Taliban continues to oppose arming its religious institutions.
While the Taliban promised protest leaders that they will arrest and punish the perpetrators of the latest killings, they have not yet arrested anyone. Mawlawi Hayatullah Muhajir, deputy governor of the Taliban in Herat, told protesters in Jibrael on December 4, “People should not worry, and we will arrest and punish the perpetrators of these incidents; arming the people is a plan by the enemy and will only exacerbate the problems.”
- Names have been changed to protect the identity of the interviewees and writer. Farshid Aram is the pseudonym of a Zan Times journalist in Afghanistan.
- This report was originally published on the Zan Times Website. To access the Zan Times webpage, click on the link: https://zantimes.com/2023/12/19/hazaras-in-herat-die-in-continued-targetted-attacks/
