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Saturday November 23, 2024

10 killed in attack on Sufi shrine in Afghanistan

By AFP
November 23, 2024
A Taliban security personnel stands in Baraki Barak district of Logar Province. — AFP/file
A Taliban security personnel stands in Baraki Barak district of Logar Province. — AFP/file

KABUL: At least 10 people were killed when a gunman opened fire on a Sufi shrine in Afghanistan´s northern Baghlan province, an interior ministry spokesman told AFP on Friday.

“A man fired on Sufis taking part in a weekly ritual at a shrine in a remote area of Nahrin district, killing 10 people,” the ministry´s Abdul Matin Qani said.

A Nahrin resident, who knew victims of the attack, told AFP that worshippers had gathered at the Sayed Pacha Agha shrine on Thursday evening.

They had begun a Sufi chant when “a man shot at the dozen worshippers”, he said on condition of anonymity.

“When people arrived for morning prayers, they discovered the bodies,” he added.

In September, the IS-K claimed responsibility for an attack in central Afghanistan that killed 14 people who had gathered to welcome pilgrims returning from the holy site of Karbala in Iraq.