A number of people have been killed and wounded in an explosion that occurred during Friday prayers on October 13 in a Shi’ite mosque in Pol-e-Khomri, the capital of Afghanistan’s northern Baghlan Province, local officials and sources told RFE/RL.
Sources in Baghlan Province, who requested anonymity for security reasons, have quoted health officials as saying that the bodies of nearly 30 people were transferred to the hospital in Pol-e-Khomri.
The explosion occurred during Friday prayers at the Imam Zaman Mosque, sources told Radio Azadi.
WATCH: Footage of the aftermath of the bombing obtained by RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi
Taliban officials have not yet provided information regarding the number of casualties, however they confirmed that a blast occurred.
“I condemn it strongly, but currently I don’t have all the information,” deputy government spokesman Bilal Karimi told the AFP news agency.
Mawlawi Hashimi, a Taliban official in Baghlan Province, told Reuters that the dead and injured were being taken to the hospital. Hashimi said authorities were probing what type of blast it was.
No group has claimed responsibility. In the past, Islamic State, which considers Shi’ites heretics, has taken responsibility for similar attacks on Shi’ites in various provinces of Afghanistan.
Since the Taliban retook control of the government in Kabul in August 2021, Islamic State has staged attacks on diplomatic missions and ministry buildings in the capital and assassinated two provincial governors.
The Taliban and Islamic State share an austere Sunni ideology, however, Kabul’s new rulers have pledged to protect ethnic and religious minorities.
According to a UN Security Council report in May, Islamic State seeks to “provoke sectarian conflict and destabilize the region” and since 2022 has conducted more than 190 suicide bombings, leaving some 1,300 injured or dead.
The presence of Islamic State fighters in Afghanistan has also stoked tensions with Pakistan, which claims they are crossing the border to strike targets on its soil.