Fereshta Abbasi, a Human Rights Watch (HRW) researcher, wrote in an article that with the Taliban's takeover of power, ISIS Khorasan has also grown and targeted mosques and schools in predominantly Hazara and Shia areas.
Abbasi wrote that like the previous government, the Taliban government has not taken adequate measures to protect the Hazaras and other vulnerable communities.
She stated that following the ISIS attack in Dashte Barchi, a predominantly Hazara neighbourhood in western Kabul, which resulted in the deaths of at least 143 people, global attention was once again drawn to ISIS.
According to Abbasi, ISIS has been carrying out bloody campaigns targeting mosques, schools, and other facilities in Shia and Hazara neighbourhood since 2015.
Recently, armed individuals opened fire on Hazara worshippers in Herat province, resulting in the deaths of at least six people, including a child. ISIS claimed responsibility for this attack.
On April 20, a magnetic bomb exploded in a passenger bus in a Hazara-populated area in western Kabul. In this incident, one person was killed, and 10 were wounded.
In her article, Abbasi stated that on January 6, in a similar attack on a bus in Dashte Barchi, five people were killed.
Western Kabul has been repeatedly targeted by ISIS and other quasi-militant groups.
According to HRW, following multiple ISIS attacks from 2015 to 2021, over 2,000 civilians have been killed in Kabul, Jalalabad, and Kandahar.
After the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, ISIS continued its attacks, and the group has killed and wounded more than 700 people since August 2021.
However, ISIS, in addition to Hazaras and Shias in Afghanistan, also targeted Taliban personnel on March 21, in front of a bank in Kandahar, resulting in 21 deaths and 50 injuries.
This is while sources told Afghanistan International that more than 40 people were killed in this attack.
Many of the victims were reportedly employees of the Taliban's Ministry of Interior who went to receive their salaries.
According to Abbasi, attacks on Hazaras and other religious minorities violate international humanitarian laws. She called the deliberate attacks on civilians as war crimes and highlighted the grave physical, psychological, economic, educational, and public life consequences.
“Beyond the immediate loss of life, such attacks incur lasting damage to physical and mental health, cause long-term economic hardship, and result in new barriers to education and public life,” she wrote.
