Thousands protest at Afghan killings as sectarian fears rise

The killing of the seven Hazara – which included three women and two children have highlighted the risk that worsening sectarianism could add a lethal twist to daily violence sweeping Afghanistan.

GHAZNI // Around 2,000 members of Afghanistan’s Hazara ethnic minority held an angry protest on Tuesday after militants killed seven members of their community at the weekend and dumped their partially beheaded bodies.

The killing of the seven Hazara – which included three women and two children – during fighting between rival Taliban factions and ISIL sympathisers highlighted the risk that worsening sectarianism could add a lethal twist to daily violence sweeping Afghanistan.

The mainly Shiite Hazaras have long suffered ill-treatment and persecution in Afghanistan, with thousands massacred by Al Qaeda and Taliban militias in the 1990s.

This year, a series of kidnappings and murders of Hazara fuelled fears that the group was being deliberately targeted, and the latest killings in the southern province of Zabul triggered a furious wave of reaction on social media.

In a sign of anger among the Hazara, the bodies of the dead were taken to Ghazni, a city in central Afghanistan with a large Hazara community, where crowds marched to the provincial governor’s compound in protest.

Bearing the coffins of the dead aloft and chanting slogans against the Taliban, ISIL and the government in Kabul, the crowd demanded punishment for the killers.

“We ask the government to find the reason behind this serial killing of Hazaras in Afghanistan and bring the perpetrators to justice,” Ghulam Ali, a protester, said.

Meanwhile, Afghanistan’s spy agency on Tuesday freed eight people who were among a large group of ethnic minority Hazaras kidnapped earlier this year.

The five men, two women and a teenager were freed Tuesday in Ghazni province, the national directorate of security said.

The NDS said they were among 31 Hazaras abducted earlier this year, but gave no further details.

A group of 31 Hazaras, believed at the time to be men, were forced off buses in Ghazni in February – 19 of them were freed in May and the rest remain unaccounted for.

Senior government officials said at the time that ISIL was behind the abductions. The NDS statement made no comment on who was responsible, referring only to “terrorists”.

* Reuters and Associated Press