Attack on Sikhs: IS or Pakistan proxies?

Violent attacks on unarmed civilians, especially when they are in prayer, are always reprehensible. They are all the more so during a time of global crisis, when people should be joining hands to tackle the crisis rather than intensifying existing problems and triggering new ones. On Wednesday, 25 people, including a six-year-old child, were killed and eight others injured when an armed extremist went on a rampage, spraying bullets into scores of people inside a Sikh gurudwara complex in Kabul. As if the mass killing at the gurudwara wasn’t bad enough, a bomb was exploded at the gates of the crematorium where the victims were being cremated. Militants have repeatedly targeted Afghanistan’s religious minorities. Sikhs have suffered both under earlier Taliban rule and later. In 2018, a convoy of Sikhs and Hindus going to meet President Ashraf Ghani were targeted by a suicide bomber. Just a month ago, at least 30 Shia Hazaras were killed in an attack. It is heartening that all sections of Afghan society have expressed solidarity with the Sikhs.

The Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K), as the ISIS’ Afghan affiliate is known, has claimed responsibility for the attack on the gurudwara. But analysts in Kabul claim that IS-K barely exists today and that it is Pakistan-based terror organizations like the Lashkar-e-Toiba and the Jaish-e-Mohammed that are carrying out attacks under the IS-K’s banner, a view that Indian officials share in the case of the gurudwara attack.

The very day that worshippers at the gurudwara were being gunned down, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases doubled in Afghanistan. The commandos who rescued the hostages at the gurudwara were armed with weapons and anti-coronavirus masks, underscoring the multiple enemies they are up against. Even as the Taliban, the IS-K and other groups continue to unleash violence on hapless civilians and security forces, Afghans struggle against the coronavirus. Afghanistan borders China, Iran and Pakistan, all countries hit by the coronavirus. It has a long and open border with Iran and thousands of Afghans who had fled their country to live there are returning home. Politically stable countries with more resources than Afghanistan are struggling to deal with Covid-19. Afghanistan’s challenge will be more daunting. It is therefore important that Afghans pull together to overcome the crisis. Afghanistan needs its police to enforce lockdowns. Extremist outfits, their patrons and collaborators must hold their fire and allow health workers to do their work. President Ghani and his defeated rival Abdullah Abdullah must end their squabbling now. Their unseemly and unending power struggle is weakening Afghans. They need empathetic and strong leadership now.