CAIRO: The Islamic State or Daesh on Sunday claimed responsibility for an attack on tourists in Afghanistan’s central Bamiyan province.
Three Spanish tourists were killed and at least one injured in the attack, Spain’s foreign ministry said on Friday.
Taliban interior ministry spokesman Abdul Mateen Qaniee said four people had been arrested over the attack. An Afghan citizen was also killed in the attack. Four foreigners and three Afghans were also injured, he added.
Mountainous Bamiyan is home to a UNESCO world heritage site and the remains of two giant Buddha statues. These were blown up by the Taliban during their previous rule in 2001.
Since re-taking Afghanistan in 2021, the Taliban have pledged to restore security and encourage tourists trickling back into the country. They have sold tickets to see the site of the destroyed Buddha statues.
Friday’s attack was among the most serious targeting foreign citizens since the Taliban took over in 2021.
The Islamic State had also claimed an attack that injured Chinese citizens at a hotel popular with Chinese businessmen in Kabul in 2022.
Allied western and Iraqi forces ejected the bigoted terrorist outfit, which seeks a global Islamic Caliphate, from northern Iraq in 2014.
But some offshoots remain active in Afghanistan, Africa and Syria. Known for its incredibly brutal persecution of ‘non-Muslims’, including Shias, it publicly beheaded soldiers, journalists, and aid workers and shared videos of these brutal acts on social media.
(REUTERS)
In a career spanning three decades and counting, Ramananda (Ram to his friends) has been the foreign editor of The Telegraph, Outlook Magazine and the New Indian Express. He helped set up rediff.com’s editorial operations in San Jose and New York, helmed sify.com, and was the founder editor of India.com.
His work has featured in national and international publications like the Al Jazeera Centre for Studies, Global Times and Ashahi Shimbun. But his one constant over all these years, he says, has been the attempt to understand rising India’s place in the world.
He can rustle up a mean salad, his oil-less pepper chicken is to die for, and all it takes is some beer and rhythm and blues to rock his soul.
Talk to him about foreign and strategic affairs, media, South Asia, China, and of course India.
