Daily Times

A bomb attached to a handcart exploded in Kabul on Friday, police said, killing two people in an area largely inhabited by Afghanistan’s minority Shiite Muslim community. Shiites in Afghanistan are currently commemorating the first 10 days of the Islamic holy month of Muharram, culminating in Ashura on Monday, when worshippers gather at mosques and take part in processions. The explosives were attached to a handcart loaded with vegetables and parked in an area where residents shopped for daily food items, Kabul police spokesman Khalid Zadran told reporters. “The explosion took place amongst civilians, and according to preliminary information two of our citizens were martyred and three others were wounded,” he said. The blast occurred in a west Kabul neighbourhood that is mainly inhabited by members of the ethnic Hazara community, who are mostly Shiite Muslims. The blast came just days ahead of Ashura, which marks the death of the revered Shiite Imam Hussein Ibn Ali, grandson of the Prophet Mohammed. No group has so far claimed the blast, but the Sunni jihadist Islamic State has regularly targeted Shiites in Afghanistan in the past. The number of violent public attacks across the country has fallen since the Taliban returned to power in August last year, but IS has continued to target Shiites, whom it views as heretics. The minority group makes up between 10 to 20 percent of Afghanistan’s population of 38 million. Taliban officials insist their forces have defeated IS, but analysts say the jihadist group remains a key security challenge.