At least 25 worshippers were killed and eight others injured when heavily armed suicide bombers blasted their way into a prominent Gurdwara on Wednesday in the heart of Afghanistan’s capital of Kabul, in one of the deadliest attacks on the minority Sikh community in the strife-torn country.
The Islamic State (IS) terror group, which has targetedSikhs before in Afghanistan, claimed responsibility for the attack on theGurdwara in Shor Bazar area at about 07:45 (local time) as 150 worshippers wereinside the building.
“At least 25 people were killed and 8 others werewounded in the attack at Dharamshala, a Sikh worship place in Kabul,”TOLOnews quoted the Ministry of Interior as saying.
“All four suicide bombers who attacked Dharamshala, aSikh worship area in PD1 of Kabul, were killed after nearly six hours offighting. Afghan special forces confirmed,” it said in a tweet.
The ministry said in a statement that 80 people, includingwomen and children, were rescued from the gurdwara.
The ISIS group, which has targeted Sikhs before inAfghanistan, claimed responsibility for the latest attack.
The group issued a statement confirming that its memberscarried out the attack on Sikhs in Kabul city, Khaama Press News Agencyreported.
Photos from the blast scene showed security forces carryingwounded people away on stretchers. Some Afghan media outlets shared videos ofthe family members of victims waiting outside a city hospital in tears.
Police in Kabul said that at least 11 children were rescuedfrom the gurdwara.
Sikh lawmaker Narendar Singh Khalsa told reporters that upto 150 people were praying inside the gurdwara when it came under attack.
Khalsa, the only representative of the Sikh community in Afghanistansaid he received a call from a worshipper inside the gurdwara, informing himabout the attack.
“I rushed over to help. There were about 150worshippers inside the gurdwara at the time of the attack,” he was quotedas saying by the official Bakhtar News Agency.”Afghan forceshave cleared the first floor of a Sikh worship area in PD1 of Kabul. A numberof people have been rescued who were trapped inside the building,” saidInterior Ministry spokesman Tariq Arian.