[The two-year-old Ghani government has been
struggling to meet public demands for reform and improved living standards
while trying to beat back an aggressive Taliban insurgency, which has launched
repeated attacks in Kabul and other parts of the country this year. Until
Saturday, the Islamic State’s recruitment and armed operations had been
confined to a far eastern region near Pakistan’s border.]
By Muhammad Sharif and Pamela
Constable
 |
|
Men carry the coffin of a
victim on Sunday, one day after a suicide attack
killed more than 80 in
Kabul. (Mohammad Ismail/Reuters)
|
KABUL — Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on
Sunday ordered a 10-day ban on public protests after a suicide bombing claimed
by the Islamic State killed more than 80 people and wounded hundreds at a
peaceful demonstration here Saturday. The protesters, mostly members of the
Shiite ethnic Hazara minority, were demanding better access to electrical power
in several rural provinces.
But the devastating terrorist attack, the
deadliest in Kabul since the overthrow of Taliban extremist rule in 2001,
raised fears that sectarian violence could be unleashed in the Sunni-majority
Muslim country, deliberately fanned by the eruption of mass carnage in the
Afghan capital at the hands of the Islamic State, the Middle Eastern-based
Sunni group known here as Daesh.
“If Daesh has indeed conducted this attack as
they claim, then their first goal is clear: to kill the Shiites here as they
have been killing them in Iraq,” said Ahmad Zia Rafat, a professor at Kabul
University. “Their second goal is to create panic, destabilize society and put
pressure on the government.”
The two-year-old Ghani government has been
struggling to meet public demands for reform and improved living standards
while trying to beat back an aggressive Taliban insurgency, which has launched
repeated attacks in Kabul and other parts of the country this year. Until
Saturday, the Islamic State’s recruitment and armed operations had been
confined to a far eastern region near Pakistan’s border.
Earlier this month, President Obama announced
he was slowing the planned withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, leaving
about 8,400 in the country through the end of 2017. His move was supported by
numerous military officials and experts, who said Afghan forces were not yet
prepared to defeat the Taliban on their own and that the United States needed
to reinforce its message of long-term commitment to the country. Most U.S.
troops are involved in training or counterinsurgency.
Now, with both the Islamic State and the
long-oppressed Hazara minority flexing their muscles, the Ghani government must
deal with a new source of potential upheaval and seek to ensure that
Afghanistan’s Western-backed war does not veer into sectarian conflict.
Even as Ghani declared Sunday a day of
national mourning and Hazara community members buried dozens of victims in a
hastily dug mass grave southwest of the capital, some Hazara leaders blamed the
president for failing to protect their gathering and said they would press on
with their demands despite the ban on protests.
“More than 100 young people died for the
cause. If the government doesn’t reroute the power line, we will continue our
protests even if it costs our lives,” said Raihana Azad, a Hazara member of
parliament and leader of the power movement. “If we don’t continue to protest,
it will be an insult to the blood of those who were killed yesterday.”
In recent years, Afghanistan has largely
avoided a reprise of the sectarian clashes that destroyed Kabul during the
civil war of the early 1990s and that in recent years have brought bloodshed
and chaos to Pakistan, Iraq and Syria. The only previous major attack against
Afghan Shiites was the bombing of a Kabul mosque in 2011 during a religious
holiday. That attack, which left 70 dead, was claimed by Pakistani Sunni militants.
But the once-docile and impoverished Hazara
minority, long abused and ostracized by ethnic Pashtun Sunni leaders, has been
gaining strength and voice under civilian rule, holding ever-more elaborate
religious holidays, demonstrating against discrimination and insisting that the
government route power lines through their rural heartland. Shiites make up
about 10 percent of the Afghan population, with power bases in Kabul and the
north-central province of Bamian.
Since taking office, Ghani has tried to
appease the Hazaras by allowing them to hold peaceful demonstrations and
offering to negotiate over the placement of power lines. Senior Hazara leaders
have opposed the recent protests, which have been led by dissident leaders,
students and community activists, and the government has placed cargo
containers on major roads to contain their marches.
In addition, there are outside forces that
could exacerbate sectarian conflict here. Iran, which took in huge numbers of
Shiite refugees from Afghan wars, has sought increasing influence in postwar
Afghan society. In Syria, some Hazaras have fought on the side of government
troops against Sunni militias, including the Islamic State.
“The goal of Daesh is to fan sectarian war in
Afghanistan, but they will not succeed because the people are smart and have
learned a lot from years of long wars,” said Mohammad Nateqi, a former Afghan
diplomat and analyst.
But several Hazara political and intellectual
figures said they were concerned that the Ghani government would not be able to
protect them, and some suggested that Saturday’s attack was abetted by
collaborators inside the government.
Mohammed Alizada, a Hazara member of
parliament, said the Islamic State has two factions of loyalists operating in
Afghanistan, one made up of moderate former Taliban members and one more
foreign-dominated and extreme. If the second group grows stronger, he said, “I
don’t think the Afghan government will be able to defend Shiites against them
without the help of the international community.”
Constable reported from Fairfax, Va. Sayed
Salahuddin contributed from Kabul.
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