Six people including the cleric, were killed after a gunman stormed a Shia mosque in Andisheh town of Guzara district, western Afghanistan’s Herat province on Monday at around 9pm (16:30 GMT).
In a post on X, Taliban Government’s Interior Affairs spokesman Abdul Mateen Qani said: “an unknown armed person shot at civilian worshippers in a mosque. Six civilians were martyred and one civilian was injured.”
According to reports, the mosque belonged to Afghanistan’s minority Shia community with the Iranian embassy in Afghanistan’s Kabul condemning the attack.
While no group has yet claimed the attack, it is widely believed that ISIL (ISIS) is behind the attack as the “Islamic State” had carried out many attacks against Afghanistan minority population and also against the ruling patrols of Taliban.
The Taliban government has time and time again pledged to protect Shia and other ethnic minorities since returning to power in August 2021 but the group has found safe haven in the country since the withdrawal of foreign forces.