Afghans hold funeral for Shia Muslims killed in Kabul

Mourners have held a mass funeral for dozens of victims from Shia Hazara Muslim community who were killed in a deadly car bomb attack a day earlier in the Afghan capital, Kabul.

A large number of people gathered for the funeral event in a Kabul neighborhood on Tuesday.

Over two dozen people were killed and more than 40 wounded on Monday after a Taliban-claimed car bomb attack struck a bus transporting government employees through a Shia neighborhood in Kabul.

The bus was struck as it passed through a busy area of the capital that is home to many Shia Hazara, a persecuted ethnic community.

Multiple bodies and wounded people in the street, surrounded by shattered glass as security forces cordoned off the area.

The bus’s charred remains were left smoking in the middle of the road as the wounded were rushed to hospitals in ambulances as well as private cars and taxis.

“It was a huge explosion, my house nearly collapsed,” AFP quoted a neighborhood resident who gave his name as Mostafa, adding that the street was “filled with human flesh and blood.”

“It was horrible,” said shopkeeper Momin, adding, “It is a crowded area, many of my friends and other shopkeepers are either killed or wounded.”

Taliban claimed responsibility for the blast.

Monday’s attack in Kabul came as the Hazara community had planned to hold a protest in the same neighborhood to mark the one-year anniversary of twin bombings that killed over 80 people in an attack claimed by the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group against the Shia community.

One year ago, a massive bomb blast killed at least 84 people, most of them Shia Hazaras, as they were holding a rally to demand better life conditions.

Also in mid-June, Takfiri terrorists killed several people and wounded several others in a bomb attack on a Shia mosque in Kabul. The casualties were caused after an assailant detonated his explosives when he was prevented from entering al-Zahra mosque in western Kabul. Daesh claimed responsibility for the attack.

In November, 2016, a bomber had blown himself up inside a Shia mosque in Kabul, killing at least 27 people and wounding dozens of others. The explosion happened at the Baqir-ul-uloom mosque in the Darul Aman area as people gathered for a religious ceremony.

Afghanistan is still suffering from insecurity and violence years after the US and its allies invaded the country in 2001 as part of Washington’s so-called war on terror. The military invasion removed the Taliban from power, but militancy still rages on in the country.