Kabul Mosque Attack: The ISIS Gives Taliban the Taste of Its Own Medicine

More Than 20 Feared Dead in Suicide Attack In Mosque In Kabul Last Evening

Main Points:

1.    The ISIS hand can't be ruled out.

2.    Last week e pro-Taliban cleric was killed inna madrasa by ISIS.

3.    On 5 August, 2 people were killed in a bomb blast in a Shia neighbourhood in Kabul.

4.    Recently, Taliban killed Mehdi Mujahid, its only Shia member because he had turned hostile.

5.    The US has refused to release 3.5 billin dollar frozen in the US and European banks.

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By New Age Islam Staff Writer

18 August 2022

 

Victims' relatives have gathered outside a hospital where their loved ones are being treated

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Though the Taliban commemorated their first anniversary in government in Afghan three days ago, they had nothing to boast of. Hostility between it and the ISIS has intensified and the latter is targeting Taliban's national and international interests. Last evening, a suicide blast occurred in the Siddiquia mosque in Khair Khana area of north western Kabul. The imam of the mosque Amir Muhammad Kabuli was among the 20 people dead. The toll may rise according the police. There are children among the dead including a 7 year old. More than 40 people were injured and have been admitted to a hospital.

Though no organisation has claimed responsibility for the attack, it has the signature of the ISIS. Amir Muhammad Kabuli subscribed to the Sufi ideology which according to the ISIS is heresy. During their rule in Iraq and Syria in 2014-15, they destroyed Mazars of Sufis and killed Muslims with Sufi mind-set. Last week, a pro-Taliban cleric Rahimullah Haqqani was killed in an attack in a madrasa. The ISIS had claimed responsibility for the attack. During the past month, at least three clerics were attacked by the armed militia.

On August 5, a blast in a Shia neighbourhood in Kabul killed 2 people. Earlier, the IS attacked maternity centre, schools and civilian areas of Shias in Kabul. They, like the Taliban, consider Hazara Shias Kafirs.

In June, the ISIS had attacked Gurudwara Karte Parwan in which 2 people including a Taliban security personnel were killed.

The Taliban government, therefore, faces an uphill task in Afghanistan. They always believed in the use of violence in resolving issues and the ISIS is giving them the taste of its own medicine. During the last 20 years, the Taliban attacked civilians, Shias and other minorities in Afghanistan under the pretext of fighting the NATO. They persecuted hapless Muslims of Afghanistan in the name of implementing Sharia. The innocent Afghan girl Sherbat Gul whose nose had been slashed by Taliban just for running away from her in-laws is still alive. They stoned to death a couple who had married with mutual consent. Such examples of religious persecution under the Taliban galore. Women were the most victimised community.

The Taliban are beleaguered by national and international issues. Millions of Afghan children are facing a food crisis. It does not have enough money to pay salaries to the government employees. The US has refused to release 3.5 billion dollars of Afghan money frozen in its banks on the grounds that the money if released may go to the terrorist organisations like the Al Qaida and the ISIS or TTP, Taliban's ideological partner in Pakistan. To justify its stand, the US attacked Al Qaida hideout in Kabul and claimed the assassination of Al Zawahiri. Now on the basis of the claim, the US refuses to release Afghanistan's money frozen in US banks. It can be presumed that the timing of Al Zawahiri's assassination had something to do with the frozen money. Now the US is accusing Taliban of violating the Doha Agreement.

It is also intriguing that the ISIS were ousted from Syria when the US had no interests there and the ISIS has shifted its activities to Afghanistan when the US has its political interests in Afghanistan. The US first helped Taliban come to power in Afghanistan and then accuses it of associating with Al Qaida. It's like handing over the keys of a treasure to a robber and then asking him not to steal it.

The US did not strengthen the Ashraf Ghani or Karzai government during 20 years of support. So when the US withdrew from Afghanistan, the Afghan forces fell like a pack of cards before the onslaught of Taliban. The US has used the violent ideology of militant outfits to its political advantage. An unstable government not a stable one fulfils its political and economic objectives. Therefore, while withdrawing from Afghanistan, the US, instead of strengthening the Ashraf Ghani government, helped Taliban to come to power because Taliban government will never be a stable government and its undemocratic policies will provide the US with opportunities to interfere in the internal affairs of the country and the excuse to topple the Taliban government in future as was done in 2001.

The transition of power in Afghanistan was not smooth but it pushed the country into a state of anarchy when lakhs of Afghan people scrambled to get out of the country as if the predicted Dajjal had come. Instead of trying to stabilise the economy, establishing order and removing fear from the minds of the people, the Taliban demonstrated their preoccupation with women, beard, dress and their version of Sharia in the same way as the ISIS had demonstrated their preoccupation with female genital mutilation, destruction of Mazars, killing of Shias and Christians and enslaving women for sale and purchase. Though the Taliban want the people to believe that they are different from the ISIS, they are not. Since they are in government, they have realised that conducting violent attacks against the government and civilians from jungles and mountains is easy but being in government is a different thing. This is the reason they had to assure the minority communities of Afghanistan of security and appealed to them to return to their homeland. They had claimed that the security issues had been resolved and so peace prevailed in the country. But the reality is quite the opposite.

In short, the violent and sectarian ideology of Taliban coupled with its anti-women and anti-education policy will keep Taliban in constant conflict with the democratic world and it will never be able to provide a stable and people friendly government in Afghanistan.

URL:    https://newageislam.com/radical-islamism-jihad/kabul-mosque-attack-isis-taliban-/d/127739

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