An explosion in the Afghan capital, Kabul, killed one person and injured 11 others, Taliban police spokesman Khalid Zadran told RFE/RL on August 11, an attack apparently targeting the country’s minority Hazara community.
Zadran said the explosion was caused by a bomb planted in a minibus in Kabul's Dasht-e Barchi area, where many Shi'ite Hazara reside.
No group immediately claimed responsibility, but the Sunni-led Islamic State Khorasan (IS-K) branch has carried out numerous attacks since the Taliban seized power in August 2021, often targeting Taliban officials, foreign nationals, the Hazara community, and others it considers incompatible with its extreme interpretation of Islam.
A female resident told RFE/RL that the Taliban authorities have failed to protect residents of the Dasht-e Barchi area.
"Explosions in Dasht-e Barchi occur regularly without anyone taking responsibility for maintaining security," she said.
SEE ALSO: The Azadi Briefing: Brutal Police Treatment Draws Attention To The Plight Of Afghans In Iran"The Taliban say they have ensured security, but that's only words. They don't care who's killed or what attacks occur. If they're genuinely ensuring security, why do explosions keep happening?"
Shi'ite Muslims, the country's largest religious minority, have complained that the Sunni Taliban has not done enough to protect them from terror attacks and have accused the Taliban itself of abuses, including "killing, torture, and forced displacement." Most Shi'a in Afghanistan are members of the historically persecuted Hazara ethnic minority.
A report this year by the U.S. State Department cited several examples of terror attacks against the Hazara community and stated that religious freedoms have continued to deteriorate under harsh Taliban rule in Afghanistan.
"Consistent with trends observed in past years, many suicide bombings and other attacks on civilians targeted Shi’a Muslims, particularly ethnic Hazara," by the IS-K terrorist group, it said.
The report identified IS-K as the "most serious threat" in the Central and South Asia region and said the group was "projecting terror beyond Afghanistan."
The U.S. report also cited UN officials in Afghanistan as saying the Taliban "had marginalized the minority Shi'a Muslim population in an effort to force them to leave the country."