ISKP massacres ten Afghan Sufi worshippers at shrine in Afghanistan

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bloodshed by ISKP
Nahrin Massacre (Photo - X)

A man opened fire on Sufi worshippers gathered at the Sayed Pacha Agha shrine in Afghanistan’s Nahrin district, killing ten people during a weekly ritual. The attack, which took place on 21 November evening, targeted individuals engaged in a Sufi chant, according to Abdul Matin Qani, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Interior.

Residents discovered the bodies the following morning during prayer hours, with one local said, “They had gathered for their ritual chant, and he shot them,” the resident said. This massacre underscores the persistent danger faced by Sufis in Afghanistan, where their practices are often deemed heretical by extremists and theocratic authorities.

Sufism, a mystical Islamic tradition emphasizing spirituality and love, has been repeatedly targeted in the war-torn country. Extremist groups, particularly the Islamic State Khorasan (ISKP), view Sufis as apostates deserving of death. This ideology has led to numerous atrocities, including an April 2022 attack on a Sufi mosque in Kunduz province that killed 33 people, many of them children, during Friday prayers.

While the Taliban’s return to power in 2021 initially led to a decrease in bombings, ISKP and other extremist factions continue to wage a campaign of terror. In September, IS-K claimed responsibility for an attack that killed 14 people in central Afghanistan who had gathered to welcome pilgrims returning from the holy city of Karbala in Iraq.

The Qur’an explicitly forbids the killing of fellow Muslims (4:92), yet extremist groups justify their attacks by branding Sufis as hypocrites or apostates, enabling them to perpetrate such massacres under the guise of jihad.

Afghanistan’s majority Muslim population remains deeply divided along sectarian lines, exacerbated by the Taliban regime’s strict interpretation of Islamic law, which often clashes with Sufi practices. The lack of security and protection for minority Muslim sects highlights the broader failure of the Taliban authorities to govern inclusively or protect their citizens from extremist violence.

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