[The gathering of religious scholars on Monday was part of a broader Afghan government effort to shrink the space for the Taliban and urge the group to meet for peace talks. The insurgents, however, have proved resilient in the face of military operations that began in 2001.]
By
Mujib Mashal and Jawad Sukhanyar
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A
roadblock near the site of a suicide bombing in Kabul, Afghanistan,
on
Monday. Credit Rahmat Gul /Associated Press
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KABUL, Afghanistan — A suicide bomber
targeted a gathering of Afghan religious scholars who were meeting on Monday to
condemn such attacks, and the authorities said at least 12 people were killed.
The attacker detonated a device near a large
tent in the Afghan capital where thousands of clerics had met to call for an
end to the violence, said Hashmatullah Stanikzai, a spokesman for the Kabul
police.
Officials said that at least 17 people were
wounded in the attack.
As many as 3,000 clerics had gathered for the
council. Only an hour before the attack, they had declared suicide bombing
un-Islamic and said there was no religious justification for such violence.
“Using humans, the noblest of all creatures,
as a tool of war is a disrespect to humanity,” the clerics said in a
proclamation read moments before the bombing.
The Islamic State claimed responsibility
through the extremist group’s Amaq news agency. Amaq identified the suicide
bomber as Siddiq al-Farsi, saying he died in a “martyrdom operation” aimed at
traitorous religious scholars, detonating an explosive belt that it said killed
or wounded about 70 people.
Both the Islamic State and the Taliban
movement, which grew out of Islamic seminaries in the 1990s, have claimed
responsibility for attacks on clerics and religious scholars whom they view as
traitors and apostates. The Taliban insurgents have used the presence of
foreign forces in Afghanistan as justification for what they call a holy war.
“We were on our way out of the compound when
we heard a loud blast,” said Maulavi Inayatullah Baleegh, a prominent cleric
who attended the meeting. “All of us dispersed and ran to seek shelter.”
“I did not know what happened afterward,” he
said. “But when I got out I saw my vehicle was damaged and a lot of people were
martyred. It was right at the end of the gathering.”
Hundreds of religious scholars who have sided
with the government or have openly denounced the Taliban since the group was
ousted from power in 2001 have met a grim end. Such targeted violence has led
many clerics — even those appalled by the bloodshed waged in the name of Islam
— to keep quiet.
In the southern province of Kandahar, the
former seat of Taliban power where a large number of scholars have been
assassinated over the years, Abdul Haq Akhundzada was shot to death on Monday
as he was walking home after noon prayers, officials said. The respected leader
of a local mosque for 20 years, Mr. Akhundzada was a prominent cleric
supporting the government’s press for peace.
“We knew about the risks, but we, as
scholars, thought it is more important to hold the gathering despite all the
risks because attaining peace is our prime objective,” said Maulavi Shafiullah
Nuristani, who was thrown by the blast on Monday and injured his leg. “Nothing
can stop us — not these attacks or anything else. We are ready to do our best
to achieve peace.”
The gathering of religious scholars on Monday
was part of a broader Afghan government effort to shrink the space for the
Taliban and urge the group to meet for peace talks. The insurgents, however,
have proved resilient in the face of military operations that began in 2001.
Despite claims by officials that many
channels of communication with the Taliban were open, there are no tangible
signs that the war could end soon, and the death toll continues to rise.
A conference of Islamic scholars urging peace
in Afghanistan was recently held in Indonesia, and another, larger event is
expected soon in Saudi Arabia.
Just an hour before the blast, the scholars
read a 26-page proclamation that drew on verses from the Quran and the sayings
of the prophet Mohammed to declare the ongoing violence in Afghanistan as
religiously unjustifiable.
“It’s been decades that Afghanistan is
burning in the fire of war,” the clerics said. “In the last 16 years in
particular, the war has become extremely bloody, and it does not respect any
religious or national values.”
While their declaration also called for
government action, it was largely focused on the Taliban.
Rukmini Callimachi contributed reporting from
New York.