‘I saw them execute the others’: How 14 Hazara men were killed by terrorists
The sounds of crying and wailing rose from the Hazara village of Qorodal in Daikundi Province at around 1 p.m. on Thursday, September 12. Panicked by the commotion, Tahira ran out of her house to see what was happening. She saw her father – his vest was riddled with holes and blood was dripping from his body. He’d just left home a half hour earlier.
As the despair of women and children echoed through the village in Sangtakht Bandar District on the border with Ghor province, Tahira’s mother fainted at the sight of her injured husband. Tahira felt helpless. “There was no one, no ambulance came,” she tells Zan Times in a phone interview. “My father was lying in blood on one side of me, and my mother unconscious on the other side. There was no one.”
In total, 14 men had been killed, including 13 from Qorodal and a dentist from Ghor, with another four wounded. Earlier that afternoon, 17 men from the small village had gotten onto motorcycles and made their way toward a neighboring village in Ghor to welcome Chaman, the village elder, and his wife, who had just returned from the Shia holy city of Karbala.
One of the wounded explained what happened in a phone interview with Zan Times. They got stopped along the way by four armed men wearing face coverings. “We all stopped our motorcycles and got off, and they told us they were Emirate [Taliban] people,” he recounts. “Then they searched us and took our smartphones. One of them said they had received reports that there were thieves in the area, and they needed to take our photos to show the authorities in Ghor.” He says that though their group was large enough to have overwhelmed the attackers, they believed that they were government forces, and so were listening to their instructions.
“First, they took a photo of one person and then said they needed to take pictures of all of us, lining us up. I was in the middle of the line. The person who said he was taking photos lifted his phone and started recording a video. Then he signaled to the other three, and they started shooting. They didn’t give us a chance to ask questions or plead.”
“When they started shooting, I ran. They shot at me, and a bullet hit my hand, but I didn’t stop and kept running. They fired again, and two bullets passed by me, but one bullet hit my leg, and I fell into a ditch. I lifted my head to see what had happened to the others, and they shot straight at my head, so I ducked down again. They thought the bullet had hit my head, so they didn’t come after me.”
He witnessed what happened to the others: “I saw them execute the others. Those who were still breathing, they kicked and shot in the head again, saying, ‘Kill the infidels and heretics; they should be dead.’”
The victims from the village of Qorodal were all men, mostly farmers, and the breadwinners of their families. The wife of a victim tells Zan Times that four children accompanied the men on their way to greet Chaman and his wife, but they survived: “They didn’t harm the children; they told them to leave.” The mother of another victim says that her 10-year-old grandson hasn’t spoken or eaten since witnessing his father’s death.
Some survivors said that the perpetrators fled to Ghor province on motorcycles. In an interview with Zan Times, Abdul Wahid Hamas, the spokesperson for the governor of Ghor, emphasizes that the incident occurred in Daikundi province; that authorities in Ghor have done nothing about it; and that they are awaiting the investigation by a delegation from Kabul. “ISIS does not have a physical presence in Ghor province,” he stresses.
Hours after the attack, ISIS claimed responsibility, and backed up that claim by publishing photos of the attack. In the past decade, Hazaras and Shias in Afghanistan have repeatedly been attacked in public places, including schools, maternity hospitals, sports stadiums, mosques, and wedding halls.
After regaining control of the country in 2021, the Taliban stated that they would not allow ISIS to operate in Afghanistan. The Taliban have repeatedly claimed they have suppressed ISIS, with reports of those efforts published in the media. However, terrorist attacks by ISIS on civilians, especially Hazaras, have continued unabated.
Though ISIS has claimed responsibility for many of the attacks against the Hazara and Shia people in the past, the Taliban have also been suspected in similar terrorist incidents. In July 2014, Ghor province officials of the former Republic announced that the Taliban had separated 14 Hazara passengers from other travelers on a minibus and executed them. Among the victims of that attack were three women, 10 men, and a child.
The Hazara and Shia people complain about the increasing discrimination imposed on them by the Taliban, including being removed from offices and institutions. In the last three years, restrictions on Shia religious ceremonies have increased, and Ja’fari jurisprudence, which was officially recognized for Shia personal matters during the Republic and taught in schools, has been removed from the curriculum and the judicial system.
In addition, extremist groups across Afghanistan have become far more active spreading hatred and bigotry against Shias and Hazaras. Recently, the Taliban’s Ministry of Education announced the establishment of 21,257 “Islamic education centres,” where a total of 3,687,200 students are enrolled. Alongside these official madrasas, hundreds of unofficial centres operate in remote areas, where children and youth are indoctrinated with sectarian beliefs and hatred by Taliban-friendly clerics who oppose modern education.
As fears of more sectarian attacks grow among minorities across Afghanistan, the victims of such attacks, including the villagers in Qorodal, believe that the 14 men who went to greet Chaman and his wife will not be the last to die.
The names in this article have been changed to protect their security.
