Attack at Ceremony Commemorating Martyr in Kabul Kills Dozens

Gunmen opened fire and killed at least 29 civilians in Kabul during a ceremony honoring an ethnic minority leader. Multiple political leaders attended the ceremony, including the Afghani Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, but all escaped unharmed. The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack, whereas the Taliban immediately denied involvement.

The ceremony celebrated Abdul Ali Mazari, who was killed in 1995 by the Taliban. Mazari was a leader of the minority Hazara ethnic group. Hazaras are Shiite Muslims, and the group has faced frequent oppression in a majority Sunni Muslim Afghanistan. It is well documented that the Taliban committed multiple acts of genocide against Hazaras during their rule in the 1990s. One such massacre in 1998 is reported to have killed more than 2,000 Hazaras, according to the Human Rights Watch.

Abdul Ali Mazari led the Hebze Wahdat (or “Unity”) party in Afghanistan. Comprised mainly of Shiite Hazaras, the party advocated for a federal system of governance in Afghanistan. Mazari believed each ethnic group should be free to govern itself. He challenged the idea that Afghanistan was a nation-state for Pashtuns, the majority ethnic group. The Taliban killed Mazarin in 1995, and he was posthumously awarded the title “Martyr of National Unity” in 2016.

The ceremony commemorating Mazari has been attacked before. In 2019, the Islamic State fired mortar shells, wounding several top government officials. The Islamic State targets Hazaras because they are Shiite Muslims, and their attack was motivated by the “Shiite celebration attended by senior government officials.” The Taliban have distanced themselves from attacks on Hazaras since 2001.

The gunmen killed 32 people in the attack and wounded 82, but government officials believe the death toll will rise.

This violence comes at a critical time for Afghanistan. Taliban and U.S. officials signed a peace deal on February 29, ending a two decade long. The Taliban agreed to reduce violence and renounce terror groups like the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda, and in exchange, the U.S. will remove all troops from the country.

The peace deal has not gone as smoothly as some might have hoped. The Afghan National government refuses to release thousands of Taliban prisoners, a key stipulation in the peace deal. In retaliation, the Taliban resumed attacks against Afghan National forces, prompting U.S. military drone strikes. Despite this, both sides remain nominally committed to the deal.

Afghani President Ashraf Ghani called the attack “a crime against humanity and against the national unity of Afghanistan.”

As the United States sues eagerly for peace, attacks like these highlight the security concerns the Afghan National government will face. Fractured and divided, the central government must negotiate a lasting peace in the intra-Afghan talks the peace deal promises. After that monumental task, the new government must combat the growing influence on terror groups like the Islamic State. The US embassy's Chargé d’Affaires Ross Wilson tweeted, “We strongly condemn today’s vicious attack… We stand with Afghanistan for peace.” Peace, as it looks now, might be a long way off.